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COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  STUDIES  IN  ENGLISH 
AND  COMPARATIVE  LITERATURE 


JOHN  ESTEN  COOKE,  VIEGINIAN 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 

NEW  YORK 


SALES   AGENTS 

LONDON 

HUMPHREY  MILFORD 
Amen  Cobneb,  E.C. 


SHANGHAI 

EDWARD  EVANS  &  SONS,  Ltd. 
30  North  Szechuen  Road 


JOHN  ESTEN  COOKE,  VIRGINIAN 


BY 

JOHN   0.   BEATY 


Submitted   in   Partial   Fulfilment   of   the    Require- 
ments for  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy,  in  the  Faculty  of 
Philosophy,  'Columbia 
University 


Mtto  Sorfe 

COLUMBIA    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 
1922 


0* 


J 


Copyright,  1922 
By  Columbia  University  Pbess 


Printed  from  type.     Published,  September,  1922. 


4" 

0 


TO 

C.  ALPHONSO   SMITH 


502058 


PREFACE 

Among  Virginia  writers  whose  careers  have  come  to  a 
close,  John  Esten  Cooke  holds  a  conspicuous  place.  He 
is  by  far  the  most  voluminous,  and  has  exerted  great  in- 
fluence on  later  novelists.  He  is  thoroughly  Virginian, 
and  is  perhaps  second  to  Poe  in  the  intrinsic  importance 
of  his  work. 

Since  neither  Cooke  nor  his  literary  background  has 
been  the  subject  of  a  definitive  study,  I  have,  in  writing 
this  critical  biography,  relied  very  slightly  on  printed 
sources  but  am  in  consequence  largely  indebted  to  a  num- 
ber of  Virginians  and  others  who  have  helped  me  gain 
access  to  first-hand  material.  Dr.  Robert  P.  P.  Cooke  and 
Mrs.  Charles  Lee,  children  of  the  novelist,  have  kindly 
placed  at  my  disposal  eight  manuscript  volumes  and  hun- 
dreds of  letters  and  other  papers  which  belonged  to  their 
father.  Cooke's  nieces,  Miss  Mariah  Pendleton  Duval  and 
Mrs.  Carter  H.  Harrison,  have  likewise  furnished  me  with 
manuscripts  and  have  entertained  and  instructed  me  with 
reminiscences  of  their  uncle.  My  research  work  has  been 
facilitated  by  the  courtesy  of  the  officials  of  the  Library  of 
Congress,  of  the  New  York  Public  Library,  and  of  the  Li- 
brary of  Columbia  University.  I  owe  much,  for  assistance 
of  one  kind  or  another,  to  each  of  the  following  gentlemen : 
Mr.  J.  B.  Ficklin,  Jr.,  the  Southern  genealogist;  General 
Thomas  T.  Munford,  a  boyhood  and  Civil  War  friend  of 
Cooke;  Reverend  C.  Braxton  Bryan,  Cooke's  pastor  in  the 
eighties ;  Professor  Killis  Campbell ;  Mr.  W.  G.  Stanard,  Li- 
brarian of  the  Virginia  Historical  Society;  Mr.  H.  R.  Mcll- 

vii 


viii  PEEFACB 

waine,  Librarian  of  the  State  of  Virginia;  Dr.  Oral  S. 
Coad;  Dr.  R.  F.  Dibble;  Professor  Jay  B.  Hubbell,  whose 
forthcoming  Virginia  Life  in  Fiction  will  serve  as  an  excel- 
lent background  to  this  biography;  Dr.  Carl  Van  Doren, 
Literary  Editor  of  The  Nation;  Professor  George  Philip 
Krapp;  and  Professor  William  Peterfield  Trent,  the  lead- 
ing historian  of  American  literature.  My  wife,  Josephine 
Powell  Beaty,  has  given  me  some  very  valuable  criticism  and 
has  helped  prepare  the  manuscript  for  the  press.  To  Mrs. 
Beaty  and  to  Messrs.  Coad,  Van  Doren,  Hubbell,  and  Trent 
my  indebtedness  is  particularly  great. 

J.  0.  B. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 


PAGB 

Early  Life — Choosing  a  Profession 1 


CHAPTER  II 
Gentleman  and  Novelist  of  Old  Virginia 30 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Civil  War — Soldier  and  Historian 73 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Problems  of  Reconstruction — Writer  and  Farmer 110 

CHAPTER  V 
Last    Years — Conclusion 139 

Bibliography  164 

Index 169 


John  Esten  Cooke,  Virginian 

CHAPTER  I 
EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one  John  Esten  Cooke  composed 
and  copied  in  a  ledger  an  account  of  his  early  life.  Like 
all  of  its  author 's  notebooks  and  diaries,  this  autobiograph- 
ical fragment  was  written  in  a  readily  legible  hand  which 
on  the  title  page  and  at  chapter  headings  is  even  comparable 
to  engraved  lettering.  The  beautiful  manuscript  is  further 
embellished  with  three-color  pen  and  ink  drawings  of  child- 
hood scenes.  "I  was  born,"  the  future  novelist  and  his- 
torian recorded  in  his  initial  sentence,  "in  the  house  on 
'Ambler's  Hill/  Winchester,  November  3, 1830.' '  Delight- 
ful as  this  sketch  is,  it  does  not  lend  itself  well  to  copious 
quotation.  It  is  not  only  rambling,  but  is  heavily  weighted 
with  the  moral  platitudes  of  a  serious-minded  youth.  Cooke, 
moreover,  with  typical  self-effacement,  did  not  make  him- 
self quite  sufficiently  the  central  figure  of  his  narrative; 
he  spoke  nearly  as  freely  of  his  relatives  as  of  himself. 
That  he  was  not  writing  with  an  eye  on  the  possible  general 
reader  of  the  future  is,  however,  shown  by  the  fact  that  he 
omitted — merely  because  they  were  obvious  to  him — such 
important  items  as  the  names  of  his  parents.  Throughout 
his  life  Cooke  was,  for  his  environment,  very  democratic — 
far  more  so  than  his  brother  Philip,  who  wrote  of  the  glory 
of  "caste;"  but  it  is  nevertheless  surprising  that  a  Vir- 

1 


ft  J  ]fi  y JOtlN  I  ESTEN. :  COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

ginian  should  begin  any  life  history  without  some  attention 
to  ancestry.  Whatever  the  youthful  Cooke  may  have 
thought  of  his  forebears — whether  he  merely  took  them  for 
granted  or  considered  the  question  unimportant — many  of 
them  had  graced  an  honorable  birth  with  lives  of  service  and 
achievement. 

According  to  one  of  Cooke's  diaries,  an  ancestor  of  the 
name  came  to  America  from  the  county  of  Hereford,  Eng- 
land. The  date  of  his  arrival  is  not  recorded,  but  he  must 
have  been  an  early  settler;  for  a  descendant,  Nathaniel, 
great-grandfather  of  the  novelist,  was  a  native  of  Boston. 
Nathaniel  Cooke  seems  to  have  moved  later  to  Philadelphia, 
where,  according  to  the  novelist,  he  became  a  wealthy 
ship-owner  and  assisted  the  Colonial  government  with  his 
money. 

Nathaniel  's  son  Stephen  Cooke,  as  so  many  of  his  descend- 
ants were  destined  to  do,  led  a  life  which  was  both  success- 
ful and  romantic.  He  is  variously  said  to  have  attended 
Princeton  and  to  have  been  sent  to  "one  of  the  English 
universities ; ' '  in  any  case  he  became  a  physician.  He  saw 
service  in  the  Revolutionary  War  as  a  surgeon,  and  was  in 
Fort  Moultrie  when  the  British  attacked  it.  From  Charles- 
ton he  set  out  by  sea  for  Philadelphia,  but  was  captured 
and  carried  to  Bermuda.  Here  the  authorities  seem  to 
have  allowed  him  the  freedom  of  the  island,  for  he  was 
soon  well  acquainted  with  the  "staunch  Whig,"  John  Esten, 
a  prominent  government  official  who  was  at  one  time  presi- 
dent of  the  Bermuda  Assembly.  Stephen  fell  in  love  with 
Catherine  Esten,  daughter  of  John  Esten  and  grand-daugh- 
ter, on  her  mother's  side,  of  Nathaniel  Spofforth,  a  gentle- 
man, of  Yorkshire  origin,  then  prominent  in  Bermuda. 
Before  the  end  of  hostilities,  the  young  surgeon  appeared 
in  Boston,  presumably  through  an  exchange  of  prisoners, 
and  shortly  served  his  country  in  a  new  capacity  by  bring- 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION     3 

ing  salt  from  the  Bahamas  in  "an  old  shackly  schooner.' ' 
When  the  war  was  over  he  returned  at  once  to  Bermuda. 
Here  he  married  Miss  Esten  and  for  a  time  made  his  home, 
but  he  subsequently  transferred  his  practice  to  Turk  Island 
in  the  Bahamas.  In  1791  he  moved  to  the  United  States, 
settling  in  Alexandria,  Virginia,  where  he  acquired  consid- 
erable property.  He  established  himself  in  1801  on  an  es- 
tate in  Loudon  County  and  died  fifteen  years  later,  long 
survived  by  his  British  wife  who  lived  to  be  revered  by 
numerous  grandchildren. 

Fourteen  children1  are  said  to  have  been  born  to  Stephen 
and  Catherine  Esten  Cooke.  Of  this  numerous  family  two 
sons,  the  eldest  and  the  youngest,  attained  to  a  degree  of 
nation-wide  importance;  while  another,  the  third  in  order 
of  birth,  was  a  prominent  Virginia  lawyer  who  became  the 
father  of  the  novelist. 

Stephen 's  eldest  son  was  named  in  honor  of  his  maternal 
grandfather.  His  name,  John  Esten  Cooke,  has  frequently 
been  confused  with  that  of  his  better  known  nephew — the 
more  easily  because  the  uncle  was  also  a  writer.  The  elder 
John  Esten  Cooke  was  born  in  Boston  on  March  2,  1783,  on 
a  visit  of  his  parents  to  that  city.  Having  received  the  de- 
gree of  Doctor  of  Medicine  from  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, he  began  his  practice  in  Warrenton,  Fauquier  Coun- 
ty, Virginia.  He  removed  in  1821  to  Winchester  where  his 
writings  on  fever,  pathology,  and  therapeutics  began  to  at- 
tract attention.  In  1827  he  was  elected  to  the  "Chair  of  the 
Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine  in  the  University  of  Tran- 
sylvania," and  took  up  his  new  duties  in  Lexington,  Ken- 
tucky.   With  the  collaboration  of  Dr.  Charles  W.  Short,  he 

i  Notes  on  six  sons  and  two  daughters,  together  with  many  other 
genealogical  details  pertaining  to  seven  generations  of  the  Cooke 
family,  are  found  in  the  series,  Notable  Southern  Families,  published 
in  The  Lookout   ( Chattanooga,  Tenn. ) . 


4  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

founded,  in  1828,  the  Transylvania  Journal  of  Medicine  and 
the  Associate  Sciences.  Becoming  more  interested  in  theol- 
ogy than  in  medicine,  Dr.  Cooke  took  part  in  a  religious  con- 
troversy, put  himself  through  a  severe  regimen  which  even 
included  bleeding — intended  to  keep  his  brain  clear — and 
produced  in  a  very  short  time  a  book,  The  Invalidity  of 
Presbyterian  Ordination.  He  was  soon  made  "  Professor 
of  the  History  and  Polity  of  the  Church"  in  the  newly  es- 
tablished Episcopalian  Seminary  at  Lexington.  Later, 
when  Episcopalianism  waned  in  Kentucky,  Dr.  Cooke  be- 
came a  professor  in  the  medical  institute  at  Louisville. 
From  this  position  he  retired  to  a  farm  on  the  Ohio,  where 
he  died  in  his  seventy-first  year  on  October  19,  1853. 

Stephen's  youngest  son,  Philip  St.  George  Cooke  (1809- 
1895)  was  born  in  Virginia.  He  was  graduated  from  the 
United  States  Military  Academy  in  1827,  served  with  dis- 
tinction in  the  Mexican  and  Indian  campaigns,  and  was  a 
brigadier-general  in  the  Union  forces  in  the  Civil  War. 
In  spite  of  his  career  as  a  most  active  soldier  chiefly  engaged 
in  frontier  work,  General  Cooke  found  time  to  cultivate 
his  share  of  the  family  bent  for  writing.  From  his  pen 
came  several  volumes,  of  which  the  most  important  are  per- 
haps Scenes  and  Adventures  in  the  Army:  or  Romance  of 
Military  Life,  which  was  brought  out  by  Lindsay  and  Blak- 
iston  at  Philadelphia  in  1856,  and  The  Conquest  of  New 
Mexico  and  California;  a  Historical  and  Personal  Narrative, 
published  by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons  in  1878.  While  in  the 
West  the  young  officer  wrote  industriously  to  his  older 
brother,  the  father  of  the  novelist,  sought  the  aid  of  the 
nephew  in  arranging  the  publication  of  articles,  and  in 
other  ways  made  a  rather  notable  effort  to  keep  in  touch 
with  the  Virginia  members  of  his  family.  His  different 
environment,  however,  furthered  the  development  of  po- 
litical ideals  which  threw  him  against  his  relatives  in  the 


EARLY  LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION     5 

Civil  War,  thus  adding  an  interesting  page  to  the  family- 
history. 

John  Rogers  Cooke,  third  son  of  Stephen  and  father  of  the 
novelist,  was  born  in  Bermuda  in  1788.  He  came  to  America 
with  his  parents,  attended  William  and  Mary  College  and 
Princeton,  studied  law,  and  settled  for  practice  at  Martins- 
burg,  (now)  West  Virginia.  He  served  in  the  War  of  1812, 
and  in  the  Virginia  legislature,  but  the  crowning  achieve- 
ment of  his  career  was  his  work  with  Madison,  Marshall,  and 
others  in  1829  in  drafting  the  new  constitution  of  his 
adopted  state.  , 

According  to  his  son 's  negro  mammy,  John  Rogers  Cooke 
was  the  glass  of  fashion  of  the  scarcely  more  than  border 
town  of  Martinsburg.  He  was  soon  in  love  with  Maria  Pen- 
dleton, a  daughter  of  Philip  Pendleton  of  Berkeley  County. 
If  the  young  lawyer  had  actually  had  in  mind  the  supple- 
menting of  the  literary  talent  of  his  future  children,  he 
could  not  have  more  wisely  chosen  his  wife.  Miss  Pendleton, 
a  grandniece  of  "the  well-known  Judge  Edmund  Pendle- 
ton of  the  Revolution, ' '  was  a  member  of  a  talented  family. 
John  Pendleton  Kennedy,  the  author  of  Swallow  Barn  and 
Horseshoe  Robinson,  and  David  Strother,  who  is  perhaps 
better  known  under  his  pseudonym,  ' '  Porte  Crayon, ' '  both 
had  Pendleton  blood  in  their  veins.  As  Stephen  Cooke  did 
not  know  the  Pendleton  family,  his  son  sent  him  a  pic- 
ture of  Maria,  and  wrote  for  permission  to  ask  her  in 
marriage.  Almost  immediately,  however,  in  a  second  letter 
he  announced  his  engagement.  To  the  first  letter  the  old 
gentleman  replied  that,  if  the  portrait  was  a  good  likeness, 
he  and  his  wife  "would  not  have  any  objection ;"  he  in- 
sisted, nevertheless,  that  it  "would  not  be  prudent"  to  be- 
come involved  "in  the  expenses  of  a  family"  before  enough 
had  been  saved  for  at  least  one  year  of  possible  misfortune. 
After  receiving  the  son's  second  letter,  however,  the  father 


6  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

naturally  felt  that  the  seeking  of  parental  approval  had 
been  "a  mere  compliment ;' '  consequently  he  concluded: 
"All  that  is  now  necessary  for  us  is  to  express  our  sincere 
wish  that  Heaven  may  bless  you,  and  that  you  may  be  happy 
in  the  choice  you  have  made. ' '  Upon  acquaintance  Stephen 
came  to  value  his  daughter-in-law  highly.  His  appraisal 
of  her  picture  may  be  taken  as  evidence  of  her  personal 
charm,  and  her  correspondence  shows  her  to  have  been 
a  worthy  and  capable  woman.  When  the  pressure  of  law 
practice  detained  her  husband  in  Charles  Town  she  herself 
oversaw  the  work  on  "Glengary,"  the  Pendleton  estate  to 
which  they  had  moved  from  Winchester.  She  recommended 
that  he  "try  to  get  home  before  dark  on  Sat'y/'  described 
interestingly  the  garden  and  lawn  improvements,  and  told 
of  having  the  servants  work  where  each  would  be  most 
"efficient."  In  addition  to  intellect,  charm,  and  house- 
wifely skill,  Mrs.  Cooke  possessed  another  admirable  qual- 
ity, a  deep  affection  for  her  family.  The  novelist's  first 
memories  are  of  the  "bright  and  beautiful"  mother  who 
watched  over  him  in  childhood.  "Dear  little  John  Ety  is 
my  shadow,"  she  wrote  to  her  husband  in  the  spring  of 
1833.  "I  have  just  put  him  to  bed  in  my  room  and  he  is 
as  happy  as  possible. ' ' 

John  Rogers  Cooke  and  his  wife  had  thirteen  children, 
of  whom  five  lived  long  enough  to  figure  prominently  in 
family  papers  and  letters  and  to  leave  descendants.  The 
five,  in  the  order  of  birth,  were  Philip  Pendleton,  Henry 
Pendleton,  John  Esten,  Mary  Pendleton,  and  Sarah  Dan- 
dridge.  Of  the  remaining  children  Anne  (the  oldest 
daughter),  Edmund  Pendleton,  and  Edward  St.  George 
("Sainty")  reached  adolescence.  One  of  the  sons  who 
died  early  had  borne  the  name  John  Esten  before  it  was 
given  to  the  future  novelist. 

The  early  childhood  of  John  Esten  Cooke  differed  little 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION     7 

from  that  of  the  normal  ante-bellum  Virginia  boy  brought 
up  on  a  country  estate.  Of  the  four  brothers  he  mentions  in 
his  autobiography,  Philip  and  Edmund  were  too  old  and 
Edward  was  too  young  for  intimate  companionship,  but 
John  records  that  he  and  Henry  prowled  about  together  ' '  in 
the  run,  over  the  woods,  up  the  trees,  doing  all  manner  of 
mischievous  things.' '  In  retrospect  he  seemed  to  have  been 
a  "far  more  important  personage' '  then  than  as  a  young 
lawyer  and  author  in  Richmond.  "A  merry  child,  also 
a  great  pet,  on  a  farm  is  a  miniature  king.  Thus  Henry 
and  myself  .  .  .  wandered  over  the  domains  of  Glengary 
at  our  own  will  and  pleasure."  The  two  boys  flew 
kites,  fought  bumble-bees  with  shingles,  hunted  hickory- 
nuts,  ate  melons  and  peaches  "gathered  by  stealth,"  and 
fished  "with  pinhooks  for  minnows."  John  had  the  farm- 
boy's  sense  of  proprietorship,  for  he  speaks  of  "swearing 
lustily"  at  the  town-boy  apple-robbers  who  descended  upon 
the  "Glengary"  orchard.  He  performed  various  little 
tasks  from  gathering  strawberries  to  watering  horses,  and 
went  through  the  usual  blundering  but  instructive  attempts 
at  service;  one  day,  for  instance,  he  "went  to  burn  stumps 
with  Henry  and  set  the  whole  field  on  fire."  "Put  me," 
he  wrote  in  the  autobiographical  sketch,  "in  the  middle  of 
negro  boys  and  girls,  with  a  whip,  a  top,  a  torn  straw-hat, 
and  wagon:  freckled  and  barefooted,  and  my  portrait  in 
those  times  is  complete." 

The  most  fascinating  figure  with  whom  John  Esten  came 
into  contact  in  his  boyhood  was  his  eldest  brother,  Philip 
Pendleton  Cooke,  who  was  fourteen  years  his  senior.  Philip 
was  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  member  ever  born  in  his 
family.  At  fifteen  he  entered  Princeton,  the  alma  mater 
of  several  of  his  ancestors,  developed  a  fondness  for  Chau- 
cer and  Spenser,  and  received  his  baptism  of  print  in  the 
Knickerbocker  Magazine.    He  contributed  to  the  first  vol- 


8  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

time  of  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  and  at  his  death 
in  January,  1850,  left  unfinished  in  this  magazine  a  story, 
The  Chevalier  Merlin.  Philip 's  only  volume,  Froissart  Bal- 
lads, and  Other  Poems  (Carey  and  Hart,  Philadelphia, 
1847),  showed  him  to  be  a  master  of  verse  technique.  One 
of  the  poems,  " Florence  Vane,"  seems  sure  of  immortality 
in  American  anthologies : 

"I  loved  thee  long  and  dearly, 

Florence  Vane; 
My  life's  bright  dream  and  early, 

Hath  come  again; 
I  renew  in  my  fond  vision 

My  heart's  dear  pain, 
My  hope,  and  thy  derision, 

Florence  Vane. 


"Thou  wast  lovelier  than  the  roses 

In  their  prime; 
Thy  voice  excelled  the  closes 

Of  sweetest  rhyme; 
Thy  heart  was  as  a  river 

Without  a  main. 
Would  I  had  loved  thee  never, 

Florence  Vane! 

"The  lilies  of  the  valley 

By  young  graves  weep, 
The  pansies  love  to  dally 

Where  maidens  sleep ; 
May  their  bloom,  in  beauty  vying, 

Never  wane 
Where  thine  earthly  part  is  lying, 

Florence  Vane!" 

The  ballads  show  greater  talent  than  does  "Florence  Vane," 
but,  because  of  their  length  and  the  less  universal  appeal 
of  their  subject,  are  not  as  well  known  as  they  deserve 
to  be. 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION     9 

The  tragedy  of  Philip  Pendleton  Cooke's  life  is  revealed 
in  the  numerous  still  extant  letters  which  he  wrote  to 
his  father.  It  has  been  said  that  when  he  was  not  hunt- 
ing he  divided  his  time  between  law  and  literature.  Hunt- 
ing and  literature  surely  kept  him  from  making  a  success 
of  law,  just  as  hunting  and  law  prevented  him  from  fulfill- 
ing his  true  destiny  as  a  poet.  A  harassing  result  of  the 
forfeited  profession  or  the  betrayed  talent  was  a  lack  of 
funds  which  was  practically  unrelieved  except  by  gifts 
from  his  father.  But  the  Philip  of  his  brother's  auto- 
biography— described  as  reading,  writing,  and  storing  his 
hunting  trophies  in  the  detached  son's-house  or  "office" 
typical  of  Southern  estates — had  not  yet  entered  upon  his 
brilliant  troubled  years.  He  was,  nevertheless,  already  con- 
tributing to  magazines,  and  John  Esten,  nourishing  an  un- 
developed literary  talent,  was  doubtless  duly  impressed. 
The  "noble  voice  and  dark  eyes"  as  well  as  the  "delicate 
black  mustache"  of  the  poet  were  vividly  recalled  many 
years  later.  To  Henry  and  John,  however,  Phil's  crown- 
ing attribute  was  his  skill  as  a  hunter,  and  the  scent  of 
gunpowder  almost  invariably  accompanies  the  poet  into 
the  pages  of  his  brother's  autobiography,  whether  he  has 
killed  a  deer  "at  eighty  yards  with  a  ball  under  the  eye," 
has  brought  in  an  unusually  fine  wild  turkey  or  Indian 
hen,  or  has  merely  exploded  a  large  fire-cracker  in  a  man- 
ner calculated  to  impress  a  small  boy.  The  death  of  a 
favorite  dog  was  the  occasion  of  a  burial  in  state  with  a 
cortege  of  small  brothers  and  negroes,  the  poet  firing  a 
salute  over  the  grave  of  the  "pointer-emperor."  Before 
little  John  was  strong  enough  to  raise  his  gun,  Phil  would 
hold  it  and  allow  him  to  pull  the  trigger,  but  in  spite  of, 
or  perhaps  because  of,  this  early  experience  John  never 
developed  a  fondness  for  hunting.  Poetry  and  the  chase 
can,  however,  scarcely  have  completely  dominated  Phil's 


10  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

early  life,  since,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  two  years  after  leav- 
ing Princeton,  he  married  Miss  Willie  Anne  Burwell,  who 
came  to  live  at  "Glengary."  " Sister  Willie,"  as  she  was 
henceforth  to  be  known  to  the  large  family  of  marriage  kin, 
was  to  John  a  "being  come  from  fairyland."  She  must 
have  been  gratified  by  her  reception  in  her  new  home,  for 
the  family  letters  in  the  next  quarter  of  a  century  speak 
of  her  in  terms  of  the  deepest  affection. 

The  Cookes  at  "Glengary"  were,  as  has  been  suggested, 
a  mutually  devoted  family,  and  were  not  averse  to  express- 
ing their  feelings.  Scores  of  letters,  by  words  as  well  as 
by  the  reflection  of  generous  actions,  bear  testimony  to  their 
affection  for  each  other.  John  never  tired  of  paying  tribute 
to  his  mother,  but  his  subsequent  extreme  devotion  to  his 
father  was  slower  in  developing.  "Pa"  at  this  period  was 
a  '  *  dignified  and  most  affectionate  being  of  superior  nature 
to  the  rest  of  the  world  who  gave  me  all  I  wished  or  ca- 
priced  .  .  .  and  never  thwarted  my  desires."  As  may  be 
surmised,  the  boy's  love  was  not  confined  to  relatives;  the 
family  slaves  shared  largely  in  his  good-will.  Upon  one 
occasion  an  obstreperous  negro  youth  named  Sawney  had 
been  sold  to  a  "  gentleman  in  Winchester  who  engaged  never 
to  sell  him  to  the  South."  John  went  up  to  the  sobbing 
slave-mother,  Mammy  Giddy,  and  told  her  "not  to  cry," 
that  he  "would  be  her  son."  From  that  time  the  black 
woman  loved  him  "especially  and  particularly,"  and  forty 
years  later,  a  decade  after  the  war,  was  the  nurse  of  his 
children.  "God  forbid,"  he  wrote  toward  the  end  of  his 
life,  ' '  that  I  should  ever  be  anything  but  proud  of  that  old 
negro 's  affection.    Not  so  long  as  I  live. '  ■ 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  boy  capable  of  such  deep  affec- 
tion should  have  soon  exhibited  a  reflective  turn  of  mind. 
1  ■  Sister  Willie  says  I  was  a  bright,  sunny-faced  child,  full 
of  mischief,  with  dancing  eyes,  round  red  cheeks,  and  very 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION    11 

gay;  yet  spite  of  all  often  sunk  in  deep  reveries.  I  would 
sit,  she  says,  at  a  table  with  an  open  book  before  me,  one 
arm  round  the  book,  my  head  supported  by  the  other  hand, 
pretending  to  read,  but  really  in  profound  thought.' '  At 
seven,  swinging  on  the  garden  gate,  the  boy  first  realized 
that  "all  was  imperfect.' '  He  recalled  "looking  at  the 
hearse  on  grandma's  death  with  an  unbelieving,  unrealizing 
simple  curiosity. ' '  He  believed  firmly  in  *  \  certain  country- 
side superstitions  of  the  period,"  and  would  hasten  by  a 
closet  on  the  stairway  where  a  "white-lady  ghost"  resided. 
A  feeling  of  anything  but  interest  was  excited  in  him  by 
the  "girls  from  town"  who  came  out  to  play  with  his  sis- 
ters, Sal  and  Mary;  but  he  approved  of  his  cousin  "Puss" 
Kennedy,  whom  he  regarded  vaguely  as  a  sweetheart  though 
he  had  never  seen  her — ' '  like  the  minstrel  Rudel,  who  never 
saw  the  dame  of  Tripoli."  When  "Glengary"  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire,  the  family  moved  temporarily  to  the  over- 
seer's quarters.  Although  forbidden  to  go  near  the  ruins, 
John  did  so  surreptitiously  to  collect  nails  from  the  ashes, 
and  "became  more  serious  in  the  presence  of  those  old 
tottering  walls  of  the  burnt  house,  through  whose  window- 
openings  poured  sun,  moon,  and  the  white  dim  starlight." 
The  destruction  of  "Glengary"  and  its  furnishings  per- 
haps dictated  in  large  degree  the  removal  of  the  parents 
in  the  summer  of  1838  with  their  eight  children  to  Charles 
Town,  where  the  father's  office  was  situated.  On  the  farm 
Henry  and  John  were  already  accustomed  to  being  sum- 
moned by  the  farm  bell  from  work  or  play  to  read  a 
History  of  Scotland  or  Charles  Rollin's  Ancient  History, 
and  at  Charles  Town  they  were  entered  at  the  school  of  a 
Mr.  Sanburn — perhaps  the  original  of  Parson  Tag  of  The 
Virginia  Comedians — a  "most  severe  and  unconscionable 
old  rascal"  who  was  obsequious  to  parents  but  fell  into 
"diabolical  rages"   against  his  pupils.     Outside  of  this 


12  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 


school,  which  John  bitterly  hated,  his  life  was  little  different 
from  what  it  had  been  in  the  country,  except  that  white 
boys  succeeded  the  black  ones  as  companions.  The  prowling 
now,  save  for  Saturday  rambles,  was  largely  confined  to 
the  various  quarters  of  the  town.  John  participated  in  the 
usual  " harum-scarum  youthful  deviltry,' '  broke  a  window, 
paid  frequent  visits  to  the  livery  stable  and  the  town  pump, 
played  ball,  and  exchanged  green  pears  for  powder  through 
the  garden  fence  with  a  town  rowdy  between  whom  and 
himself  "  there  was  an  uninterrupted  contest  as  to  which 
should  bully  the  other — the  great  world  in  miniature  I" 
While  one  of  his  small  friends  was  trying  to  make  an  elec- 
trical machine,  and  another  was  championing  a  circulating 
library,  John  was  on  the  one  hand  profoundly  impressed  by 
the  new  railroad,  and  on  the  other  was  already  peopling  old 
houses  with  the  figures  of  romance.  The  history  read  at 
"Glengary"  gave  place  now  to  the  Tales  of  a  Grandfather, 
which  he  read  aloud  to  an  aunt.  The  reading  still  seems 
to  have  been  rather  compulsory,  but  in  view  of  the  boy's 
future  work  it  was  surely  seminal.  This  round  of  life  in 
Charles  Town  was  soon  to  be  interrupted.  A  fast  increas- 
ing reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  the  problem  of  educating 
his  large  family  determined  John  Rogers  Cooke  to  remove 
to  Richmond. 

The  country  he  was  leaving  was  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able spots  in  what  was  then  perhaps  the  most  romantic 
of  the  American  states.  Immigration  and  nature  had  com- 
bined to  make  the  region  unique.  In  Clarke  and  Frederick, 
and  the  two  adjoining  counties  now  in  the  Eastern  pan- 
handle of  West  Virginia,  the  German  civilization  of  Penn- 
sylvania stood  face  to  face  with  the  English  civilization  of 
Virginia.  The  Germans  were  the  first  to  come  in  numbers 
and  pushed  southward  up  the  fertile  valley ;  but  Lord  Pair- 
fax  was  no  less  desirous  of  securing  and  extending  his  vast 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION    13 

estate,  and  actually  built  Greenway  Court  to  the  west  of 
the  Blue  Ridge.  Many  families  from  Tidewater  joined 
him  and  even  today  his  old  neighborhood,  the  present  county 
of  Clarke,  partakes  of  the  nature  of  an  East  Virginia  colony. 
Since  the  Scotch-Irish  had  already  been  disputing  the  Val- 
ley with  the  Germans,  there  were  to  be  met  daily  in  "Win- 
chester, Charles  Town,  and  Martinsburg  three  distinct 
races,  all  of  which  are  portrayed  in  Cooke 's  romances  deal- 
ing with  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  In  the  days  before  rail- 
roads the  Potomac  was  one  of  the  great  highways  to  the 
West.  Interesting  travelers  were  constantly  passing.  Cul- 
tured families  were  found  in  the  river  counties,  while  the 
old  border  still  survived  in  portions  of  the  Alleghanies.  A 
stage  trip  to  some  of  the  more  mountainous  counties  would 
discover  cabins  where  lived  men  to  whom,  a  few  decades 
before,  an  Indian  raid  was  not  a  rarity.  Cooke 's  first  book, 
Leather  Stocking  and  Silk,  derived  its  title  from  this  con- 
trast as  did  a  later,  The  Last  of  the  Foresters.  Lying  as  it 
does  between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Eastern  Alleghanies, 
the  Valley  of  Virginia  affords  a  variety  of  beautiful  scen- 
ery. The  sun  rises  as  well  as  sets  over  a  fine  chain  of  moun- 
tains. Unusual  features  in  the  landscape  result  from  the 
calcareous  nature  of  the  region.  The  bee-hive  cave  in 
Fairfax  is  surpassed  by  the  actual  caverns  of  Luray.  Nu- 
merous ponds  and  sink-holes  mark  the  fallen  roofs  of  smaller 
caves.  The  scenery  probably  did  not  appreciably  affect 
John  when  he  lived  in  the  Valley,  but  he  must  have  been 
impressed  in  retrospect  when,  in  his  new  home,  his  excur- 
sions and  visits  took  him  along  the  banks  of  the  James, 
through  the  swampy  territory  of  the  Chickahominy,  or  else- 
where in  the  Tidewater  region. 

The  Cookes  arrived  in  Richmond  in  March,  1840,  and 
"lived  first  in  the  house  below  the  Capitol  Square — one  of 
the  brick  dwellings  built  by  Vial  and  rented  at  an  enor- 


14  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

mous  price."  John  Rogers  Cooke's  service  as  a  member 
of  the  legislature  and  of  the  state  constitutional  convention 
of  1829  had  already  made  him  a  circle  of  friends  in  Rich- 
mond, and  his  family  was  hospitably  received  in  that  city. 
The  centralization  of  American  intellectual  life  around  New 
York  had  not  then  begun,  nor  had  the  New  England  literary 
coterie  yet  risen  to  overshadowing  fame.  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Richmond,  and  Charleston 
were  centers  of  local  culture ;  and  of  these  cities  Richmond 
was  perhaps  not  the  least  important.  It  possessed  a  much 
larger  relative  population  than  does  the  Richmond  of  today 
and  was  the  capital  of  a  state  which  extended  to  the  Ohio 
River.  Unfortunately  lacking  a  university,  Richmond  was 
nevertheless  in  close  touch  with  the  venerable  College  of 
William  and  Mary  and  with  the  newer  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  number  of  whose  students  was  greatly  increased 
by  the  development  of  sectional  ill-will,  with  the  consequent 
dislike  of  Southern  fathers  to  send  their  sons  to  the  North- 
ern universities.  The  city  was  also  visited  by  the  great 
actors  of  the  time  and  sustained  several  publications,  among 
which  was  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  the  most 
notable  magazine  that  has  yet  appeared  in  the  South. 

John  Esten's  sudden  change  from  the  border  to  the  cap- 
ital resulted  in  a  marked  intellectual  stimulus.  He  no 
longer  needed  a  bell  to  summon  him  to  his  books.  The 
1 '  harum  -  scarum ' '  became  an  alert,  ambitious  student. 
"George  and  myself  were  soon  sent  to  the  Academy,' '  he 
writes.  "I  remember  distinctly  our  debut  there — dressed 
in  black  cloth  from  head  to  foot,  with  white  straw  hats,  and 
in  profound  amazement.' '  The  day  of  his  entering  this 
school  saw  the  beginning  of  the  most  intimate  friendship 
of  the  first  half  of  Cooke's  life.  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh, 
Junior, — a  son  of  an  associate  of  John  Esten's  father  in 
drafting  the  State  Constitution — refused  the  invitation  of 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION    15 

one  Richard  Heath  to  "pitch  into  the  little  stranger,"  en- 
gaged him  on  the  contrary  in  conversation,  liked  him,  and 
made  his  path  easy.  The  autobiography  refers  meagerly 
and  in  the  most  general  terms  to  this  period,  but  Cooke  at- 
tended Dr.  Burke's  school  as  well  as  the  Richmond  Acade- 
my. He  set  down  accounts  of  rambles  in  the  neighboring 
woods,  and  of  swimming  trips  to  the  falls  of  the  James,  a 
picturesque  place  soon  to  be  invaded  by  factories,  much  to 
the  chagrin  of  the  Richmond  schoolboys.  Weighty  problems 
were  discussed  in  boyish  letters,  and  quarrels  were  adjusted 
in  the  most  solemn  fashion.  Though  all  the  boys  in  this 
group  practiced  target-shooting,  there  is  no  evidence  that 
they  ever  regarded  their  skill  as  a  means  of  composing  their 
differences.  John  Esten  evidently  no  longer  considered  girls 
as  disagreeable  as  he  once  found  the  "little  maidens' '  of 
the  Valley,  now  considered  "nice"  in  retrospect;  for  in 
writing  his  recollections  he  recalled  "so  vividly  .  .  .  that 
star"  of  his  "youth  or  rather  childhood  with  her  long 
dark  curls  and  tender  smile  and  musical  laugh." 

Whatever  the  school-boys  of  this  period  may  have  done 
occasionally,  they  apparently  found  their  greatest  interest 
in  literary  societies.  Oratory  was  the  forte  of  the  men  of 
the  old  South  and  it  was  natural  that  their  sons  should  emu- 
late them.  Cooke  carefully  preserved  the  "Records  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Franklin  Debating  Society"  for  1845 
and  1846.  This  society  met  first  at  Burke's  School  and 
later  at  the  Academy.  Its  sessions  were  usually  held  twice 
a  week  and  at  least  once  on  successive  days.  Young  ' '  Wat- 
tie  ' '  Leigh  stood  out  as  the  leader  among  his  friends.  After 
serving  twice  as  president  he  refused  reelection,  but  later 
on  heeded  the  call  to  a  third  term  in  order  to  save  the  or- 
ganization which  his  successor  had  nearly  shipwrecked. 
Young  Cooke  had  taken  part  in  several  debates,  usually  on 
the  justification  of  certain  famous  executions  in  history 


16  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

or  on  the  relative  merits  of  certain  pairs  of  virtues,  and 
had  won  as  a  rule  except  when  pitted  against  "Wattle." 
He  had  been  defeated  for  a  minor  office.  His  hour  of  tri- 
umph came,  however,  in  a  manner  that  reflects  credit  on  the 
critical  acumen  of  his  fellow  members.  An  essay  was  read 
once  a  month,  and  John  Est  en  made  so  favorable  an  im- 
pression with  his  that  it  was  "resolved  that  the  society 
keep  Mr.  Cooke's  essay."  Election  of  officers  came  next 
on  the  order  of  procedure,  and  Cooke  received  a  landslide. 
Perhaps  the  outgoing  president  wanted  to  take  a  last  good- 
natured  thrust  at  the  future  chairman ;  perhaps  John  Esten 
was  feeling  a  bit  reckless  because  of  his  new  honor;  at  any 
rate  in  the  remainder  of  the  session,  as  is  solemnly  recorded 
in  the  minutes,  "Mr.  J.  E.  Cooke  was  fined  12%  cents 
(once  for  disturbing  the  society  6*4  cents  and  again  for  in- 
terrupting Mr.  Munford  6}4  cents)  " — as  many  penalties  in 
an  hour,  it  seems,  as  he  had  hitherto  received  in  his  entire 
membership.  Cooke 's  administration  was  successful  and  he 
was  reelected.  When  a  member  resigned  "on  account  of 
the  president's  arbitrary  administration  of  justice,"  the 
society  accepted  the  resignation  and  sustained  the  chair  by 
a  unanimous  decision.  Cooke  secured  the  passage  of  a 
by-law  providing  "that  if  any  member  run  or  move  faster 
than  a  walk  in  the  room  where  the  society  is  holding  its 
meetings  he  shall  be  fined  6}i  cents."  The  usual  hour  of 
gathering  was  four  or  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  but  the 
protracted  nature  of  some  of  the  sessions  is  shown  by  the 
requirement  (established  in  a  season  of  long  days)  that 
each  member  bring  a  "whole  candle"  on  the  first  meeting 
of  each  month.  In  an  unguarded  moment  the  society 
changed  its  name  to  the  "Skull  and  Bones"  and  spent  sev- 
eral dollars  in  having  an  anatomical  device  engraved  with 
the  constitution  upon  parchment.  The  inappropriateness 
of  the  new  name  soon  became  apparent,  and  on  the  first 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION    17 

occasion  of  John's  presiding  the  "S  and  B"  was  ordered 
stricken  out  and  Franklin  restored.  This  society  touched 
the  outside  world  in  maintaining  friendly  relations  with  at 
least  one  similar  organization,  and  in  having  men  of  promi- 
nence as  honorary  members. 

John  Esten's  success  in  the  literary  society  would  nat- 
urally have  suggested  a  career  as  a  lawyer.  Of  the  South- 
ern Democrats  recently  prominent  in  national  affairs,  many 
are  products  of  these  forensic  training  camps.  Oscar  Un- 
derwood, John  Sharp  Williams,  and  Woodrow  Wilson — the 
latter  a  medalist — were,  to  mention  but  one  organization 
in  one  school,  nearly  contemporary  members  of  the  Jeffer- 
son Society  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  But  apart  from 
the  influence  of  tradition  it  is  not  surprising  that  a  boy  of 
1845  should  have  looked  to  law  as  an  attractive  vocation. 
Before  the  great  modern  era  of  business  and  engineering, 
men  of  local  fame,  especially  in  the  eyes  of  the  young  or  the 
not  particularly  well  informed,  were,  in  times  of  peace, 
almost  always  holders  of  public  office.  Law  in  1845  was 
of  course  almost  a  prerequisite  to  statecraft,  and  though  Vir- 
ginia was  becoming  less  important  politically  by  the  mid- 
century,  the  profession  still  retained  its  attractiveness.  Fur- 
thermore, John  Esten's  family  environment  pointed  toward 
law.  He  revered  his  lawyer-father,  some  of  whose  pro- 
nouncements on  topics  of  the  day  he  recorded  in  his  diaries. 
His  brother  Philip,  ostensibly  a  lawyer,  was  unsuccessful 
in  Virginia,  but,  in  writing  to  his  father,  was  the  architect 
of  air  castles  in  which  he  figured  as  a  senator  from  Missouri. 
John  Esten  Cooke,  at  approximately  the  age  of  sixteen,  thus 
began  the  reading  of  law  under  the  guidance  of  his  father. 
Consideration  was  given  to  the  desirability  of  his  going  at 
once  to  the  University  of  Virginia,  but  it  was  decided  that 
he  had  best  pursue  his  study  privately  in  order  that,  when 
he  did  matriculate,  he  might  graduate  in  one  session.    The 


18  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 


youth  set  his  heart  on  entering  the  law  school  in  the  fall 
of  1847,  and  in  August  wrote  accordingly  to  his  father, 
who  was  then  in  the  western  part  of  the  state  on  a  trip 
combining  business  with  recuperation.  The  letter  caused 
the  absent  parent  much  worry,  for  it  found  him  financially 
unable  to  provide  for  a  step  he  greatly  approved. 

From  an  early  age  John  Rogers  Cooke  exhibited  a  lack 
of  business  foresight  perhaps  surprising  in  one  of  his  abil- 
ity. His  lavish  use  of  his  means  may  be  illustrated  by  his 
treatment  of  poachers  at  "Glengary";  he  objected  strongly 
to  their  presence,  but  once  they  were  on  his  estate  he  would 
send  out  to  them  trays  of  ham,  bread,  and  wine.  In  the 
middle  forties  his  younger  children  were  reaching  the  ex- 
pensive age.  Moreover  his  oldest  son  now  had  an  increas- 
ing family  and  was  only  in  part  self-supporting.  Cooke's 
father  had  thus  been,  in  spite  of  his  large  fees,  heavily 
involved  in  debts  by  the  combination  of  Richmond  life, 
numerous  dependents,  and  reckless  generosity.  On  the 
fifth  of  September  he  answered  his  son's  letter,  stating 
the  lack  of  funds  but  expressing  the  hope  that  a  matricula- 
tion a  few  weeks  later  might  be  arranged  for.  "I  will 
send  you  to  the  University  as  soon  as  possible.  Go  you 
shall  if  God  spares  my  life  and  health."  John  did  not 
go  and  two  years  later  almost  to  a  day  wrote  a  similar 
letter  in  reference  to  the  session  of  1849-50.  His  private 
study  had  been  dragging  rather  slowly  through  the  two 
years,  but  he  was  now  hard  at  work  on  his  books  in  eager 
anticipation  of  entering  the  University.  ' '  You  seem  to  have 
commenced  the  good  work,"  the  father  replied,  "and  I 
devotedly  hope  that  you  will  not  fall  back  into  idleness, 
light  reading,  and  frivolous  associations."  The  son  was 
reminded  that  a  knowledge  of  law  remained  while  summer 
friends  were  ephemeral,  and  was  promised  "that  nothing 
but  the  ascertained  impossibility  of  raising  the  money" 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION   19 

should  prevent  his  being  entered  at  Charlottesville  "on  or 
soon  after,  the  first  of  October."  This  plan  likewise  fell 
through,  and  John  evidently  determined  to  consider  college 
no  more.  When  the  family  exchequer  became  able  again  to 
stand  the  drain,  he  withdrew  his  claim  in  favor  of  his 
younger  brother  Edward.  Thus  ended  his  dream  of  be- 
coming a  University  man. 

The  father's  reference  to  John's  frivolous  procedure  was 
apparently  the  unjustified  utterance  of  an  aging  man  for- 
getful of  his  own  youth.  The  "idleness"  consisted  in  at- 
tending speeches,  concerts,  plays,  and  everything  of  an 
intellectual  nature  that  came  to  Richmond;  in  keeping  in- 
formed on  the  politics  and  literature  of  the  day;  and  in 
frequenting  the  social  gatherings  of  young  men  and  women 
of  his  own  years  and  station  in  life.  In  a  diary  minutely 
recording  the  doings  of  this  year,  no  entry  was  made  which 
revealed  the  slightest  trace  of  unbecoming  or  improper  con- 
duct. On  the  other  hand,  it  would  seem  only  natural  that 
the  constant  holding  up  before  his  eyes  and  sudden  with- 
drawal of  his  cherished  desire  for  a  higher  education  should 
have  engendered  a  certain  lack  of  application. 

Cooke  had,  however,  another  excuse.  The  "light  read- 
ing" was  Carlyle,  Tennyson,  Irving,  Emerson,  Dumas,  and 
a  score  of  others  in  English,  American,  and  French  litera- 
ture— names  which  are  today  the  classics  of  those  who  are 
condemning  "light  reading"  still.  In  fact,  the  youth  was 
careful  in  his  reading,  made  notes  on  it,  imitated  it;  was 
seriously  beset,  withal,  by  the  desire  of  becoming  a  man  of 
letters.  At  a  very  early  age  he  had  written  an  unpreserved 
piece, ' '  The  Well  of  St.  Kean, ' '  which  he  always  regarded  as 
his  first  original  literary  work.  Cooke  was  a  great  lover  of 
autumn;  he  was  "disposed  to  imagine"  that  his  character 
resembled  that ' '  fine  and  beautiful  season,  so  dreamy,  full  of 
memories,  so  warm  and  cool  by  turns, ' '  and  his  second  com- 


20  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

position  was  '  *  some  lines  on  Autumn  which  Pa  liked. ' '  The 
year  1849  is  very  fully  recorded  in  a  ledger  which  combines 
the  features  of  a  journal  and  a  commonplace-book,  and  re- 
veals, much  better  than  his  earliest  published  articles,  the 
state  of  mind  of  the  writer.  In  this  ledger  were  copied  nu- 
merous original  poems,  as  well  as  imitations  of  Poe's  "To 
One  in  Paradise,"  and  of  several  of  Tennyson's  poems  in- 
cluding "The  Talking  Oak,"  "Ode  to  Memory,"  and  "The 
Lotos-Eaters."  Cooke  also  produced  a  rimed  tetrameter 
version  of  ' '  Tears,  Idle  Tears, ' '  but  found  his  effort  rather 
unsatisfactory.  The  passing  away  of  Poe  affected  him  pro- 
foundly, and  called  forth  several  crude  pieces  lamenting  the 
lost  genius.  Most  of  these  early  efforts  are  somber.  Virginia 
is  described  as  a  land  of  lost  ideals,  of  a  fallen  generation  un- 
worthy of  being  mentioned  in  the  same  breath  with  its  an- 
cestors. The  youth  wrote  of  "vain  aspirings"  and  "vainer 
labor,"  and  discovered  that  "the  soil  of  life"  was  "barren." 
Like  other  dreamers  in  different  ages,  the  young  Vir- 
ginian yearned  for  a  panacea  in  some  far  off  country  with 
a  euphonic  name.  Just  as  Southey  and  his  group  looked 
longingly  to  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna,  Cooke,  living 
near  the  ocean  outlet  of  that  river,  looked  in  turn  three 
thousand  miles  to  the  West — to  California.  The  idea  of 
going  thither  dominated  his  mind  during  the  year  1849. 
The  Coleridgean  plan  of  taking  along  a  wife  also  received 
rimed  consideration.  "Wattie"  Leigh  transferred  a  sim- 
ilar enthusiasm  into  action,  for  he  went  to  California,  where 
he  died  a  few  years  later.  Any  excessive  ardor  on  Cooke's 
part  must,  however,  have  been  well  discouraged  by  his 
father,  who  is  recorded  as  having  said,  apropos  of  the  ' '  vast 
desert"  and  the  "mountains  above  the  clouds"  which  "sep- 
erated"  [sic]  the  East  from  the  far  West:  "A  strange 
madness  seems  to  have  seized  the  country.    This  railroad  to 


EAELY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION   21 

the  Pacific  will  really  be  built.  And  for  what?  Why  to 
drain  our  very  vital  blood,  our  men  and  money  into  another 
country  which  nature  has  unchangeably  forbidden  to  be 
a  part  of  the  United  States." 

Cooke's  life-long  chivalric  courtesy  toward  ladies  was  al- 
ready being  mistaken  for  affection,  as  he  complains,  but  he 
wrote  a  goodly  number  of  love-poems.  He  produced  these 
effusions  literally  by  the  stop-watch,  often  recording  the 
number  of  minutes  required  for  a  certain  composition; 
hence  the  requirements  of  rime  largely  dictated  the  phrase- 
ology, and  he  was  a  ready  victim  for  such  conventional 
phrases  as  "eyes  like  stars"  and  "golden  hair."  But  the 
poems  reflect  only  one  side  of  his  intellectual  life.  He  was 
not  always  experiencing  "a  bitter  joy"  or  a  "blissful  pain." 
In  addition  to  the  attention  to  law,  referred  to  in  connec- 
tion with  his  education,  he  was  writing  critiques  of  drama 
and  music,  taking  notes  from  William  Wirt  on  effective 
oratory,  and  unconsciously  gathering  from  observation  the 
materials  for  Ellie  and  certain  of  the  Richmond  scenes  in 
Surry  and  Mohun.  As  the  year  1849  differed  little  from 
those  immediately  preceding,  it  differed  less  from  1850. 
Cooke's  lack  of  mental  industry  worried  him.  "Throw  your 
soul  into  the  drudgery,  then  it  is  not  toil,"  he  advised  him- 
self in  his  journal.  The  deaths  of  Philip  in  January,  1850, 
and  of  his  mother  later  in  the  year  may  have  completely 
unsettled  him  for  a  time.  Such  an  effect  was  surely  pro- 
duced later  by  other  deaths  in  his  family.  Leigh  remon- 
strated with  him  about  his  gloominess.  The  year's  chief 
literary  advance  came  from  a  visit  to  the  Berkeley  Springs, 
where  he  took  delight  in  certain  old  hunters  whom  he  de- 
scribed as  pure  English  with  the  soul  of  John  Smith.  The 
contrast  between  these  men  with  their  guns  and  the  inn 
guests  with  their  canes  suggested  a  comparison  of  manners 
combined  several  years  later  with  much  else  to  make  Leather 


22  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

Stocking  and  Silk,  which  was  his  first  publication  in  book 
form. 

The  1849  diary  and  commonplace  book  indicated  Cooked 
strong  yearning  toward  the  profession  of  letters.  He  was 
amply  justified,  however,  in  his  constant  misgivings  about 
following  his  literary  bent,  for  he  knew  that  he  would  have 
to  be  responsible  for  his  entire  support  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble, and  he  must  have  known  how  pitifully  hard  it  was  for 
a  Southern  writer  to  earn  a  livelihood.  Cooke  became  later 
perhaps  the  best  paid  Southern  man  of  letters  before  1870, 
yet,  however  much  the  youth  may  have  believed  in  his 
talent,  the  future  must  have  seemed  dark.  But  it  was  easy 
to  begin  writing.  There  were  few  writers  in  the  South 
then  in  comparison  with  the  number  in  the  North,  the 
number  in  the  South  who  with  pen  and  ink  sought  food 
or  justification  after  Appomattox,  and  the  number  every- 
where now.  And  writers  were  really  needed.  Virginia 
was  studded  with  newspapers  many  of  which  ran  magazine 
features,  and  all  of  which  required  numerous  special  cor- 
respondents in  default  of  the  service  of  the  modern  news 
agencies.  The  writers  of  these  communications  occasionally 
received  slight  compensation,  but  usually  none.  The  con- 
stantly precarious  condition  of  Southern  periodicals  was 
due  chiefly  to  poorly  paying  subscribers.  It  is  indeed  re- 
markable that  so  many  gentlemen  of  the  old  regime  should 
have  considered  it  unimportant  to  pay  for  a  book  or  maga- 
zine they  had  subscribed  for.  Perhaps  books  and  maga- 
zines were  regarded  as,  in  the  last  analysis,  mere  "scraps 
of  paper."  In  any  case  the  delinquency  of  supposed  pa- 
trons constantly  imperiled  and  assisted  in  snuffing  out  the 
periodical  ventures  of  Southern  editors.  Even  John  Rogers 
Cooke,  an  honest,  sober,  lovable  gentleman,  was  years  be- 
hind in  his  subscription  to  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger 
when  his  son's  contributions  served  as  payment.     Know- 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION   23 

ing  the  difficulties  which  would  beset  his  path,  John  Esten 
Cooke,  for  eight  years  after  his  sixteenth  year,  withheld 
a  full  devotion  to  the  profession  of  letters.  He  attempted 
in  this  indecision  between  law  and  literature  the  difficult 
dual  role  which  had  proved  so  disastrous  to  the  success  and 
happiness  of  his  brother  Philip. 

In  this  hesitation  between  two  careers,  one  galling  but 
probably  profitable,  the  other  agreeable  but  of  little  finan- 
cial promise,  Cooke 's  better  energies  went  into  his  literary 
efforts.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  achieved  the  dignity  of 
print.  ' '  Avalon, ' '  a  poem  which  appeared  in  the  Messenger 
for  November,  1848,  seems  to  have  been  his  first  published 
article,  and  was  followed  in  the  next  five  years  by  a  number 
of  unsigned  or  pseudonymous  pieces.  This  early  work  was 
not  paid  for,  and  Cooke  justly  never  regarded  it  as  pro- 
fessional; it  merely  afforded  him  the  training  available 
to-day  through  college  magazines.  The  ease  with  which  he 
secured  a  publisher,  while  it  was  an  impetus  to  further  com- 
position, was  detrimental  to  his  artistic  development.  Many 
of  his  less  worthy  efforts  were  accepted  quite  as  readily  as 
his  best,  and  he  was  soon  ominously  on  the  road  to  an 
amazing  productivity  accompanied  by  an  unfortunate  dis- 
taste for  revision. 

Cooke's  early  articles  were  of  many  types,  and  some  of 
them  showed  promise.  In  January,  1849,  appeared  the 
prettily  phrased,  metrically  correct  "Eighteen  Sonnets.' ' 
Each  sonnet  has  a  humorous  twist,  and  is  followed  by  a 
prose  paragraph  pointing  out  its  merit  in  a  manner  that 
suggests  a  burlesque  on  some  of  the  copiously  edited  modern 
editions  of  poems.  Cooke  left  no  record  of  any  share  he  may 
have  had  in  writing  the  short  book  notices  which  appeared 
in  the  Messenger.  That  he  was  a  conscientious,  capable 
critic,  however,  is  shown  by  his  "Thomas  Carlyle  and  his 
'Latter-Day  Pamphlets,'  "   which  appeared  in  the  Mes- 


24  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

senger  in  June,  1850.  In  clear,  fluent  language  he  sums 
up  the  points  made  by  Carlyle  whom  he  considers  to  have 
''crowned  the  column  of  political  extravagance.  .  .  . 
Thomas  Carlyle  is  now  the  head  reformer  of  the  age  with 
a  perfectly  distinct  political  theory  of  his  own,  and  is  soon, 
we  predict,  to  found  a  school  of  politics  in  England  which 
shall  re-echo  his  wild  doctrines.  It  ought  to  be  called  Car- 
lyleism,  for  no  other  word  will  express  it  [sic]  principles 
so  well.  ...  In  these  papers,  as  throughout  his  entire 
works,  Carlyle,  the  man,  stands  prominent — a  bold,  earnest, 
inflexible,  conscientious  thinker !  .  .  .  "Whatever  Carlyle  ad- 
vances, the  world  may  take  as  his  earnest  true  belief." 
The  sonnet  "To  Kossuth"  reflects  the  author's  interest  in 
international  affairs  as  well  as  affords  a  sample  of  his  poetic 
skill  at  this  period: 

TO    KOSSUTH 

0  Kossuth,  noble  Kossuth!  could  the  tears 

Of  nations  shed  for  thee  enlarge  thy  fame 
From  Schumla's  prison,  which,  through  coming  years, 

Shall  stand  the  monument  of  Hapsburg's  shame, 
Thine  eagle  eye,  before  to-morrow's  sun, 

Would  once  more  turn  to  thy  dear  Hungary 
Far  in  the  West,  where  shuddering  upon 

Her  mountain's  rugged  rim  the  sunsets  die. 
That  eye  of  fire!     Oh  may  it  once  again 

Inspire  the  mailed  breasts  of  serried  hosts, 
And  flush  ten  thousand  brows  with  proud  disdain 

Of  Austrian  tyranny's  vainglorious  boasts. 
May  once  more  wave  thy  fiery  plume  on  high — 

A  morning  star  to  night-steeped  Hungary! 

While  balancing  law  and  literature  and  producing  short 
articles,  Cooke  had  found  time  to  write  two  romances,  The 
Knight  of  Espalion  and  Evan  of  Foix.  The  Knight  of 
Espalion  was  written  in  the  summer  of  1847.  "My  first 
story  and  I  think  it  pretty  good,"  Cooke  said  of  it  years 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION   26 

later.  This  story,  which  has  attracted  attention  because  of 
the  extreme  youth  of  its  author,  was  never  published  in 
book  form,  and  did  not  find  its  way  into  the  Messenger 
until  1860  when  it  was  run  as  a  serial  from  July  to  October. 
Much  of  Cooke's  best  work  had  appeared  by  1860,  so  he 
wisely  published  the  resurrected  manuscript  anonymously; 
it  could  have  added  nothing  to  his  reputation.  The  story 
is  without  plot;  it  merely  recounts  certain  adventures 
which  befall  Raoul  d'Espalion,  a  companion  in  arms  to  the 
Viscount  of  Beziers.  At  the  very  beginning  there  is  intro- 
duced in  detail  a  troubadour  to  whom  no  further  reference 
is  made.  An  entire  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  love  of  Raoul 
for  his  cousin,  but  the  topic  is  not  again  mentioned.  On 
the  whole,  The  Knight  of  Espalion  gives  the  impression  of 
being  the  first  third  of  an  unfinished  story.  Cooke  was 
fascinated  by  the  sonorous  names  of  the  Midi,  and  led  his 
hero  through  nearly  every  town  of  importance.  Except 
for  a  description  of  the  wonderful  Gothic  portal  of  the 
Church  of  St.  Gilles  there  is,  however,  not  a  trace  of  local 
color,  and  when  Cooke  glories  in  the  autumn  weather  he 
obviously  has  in  mind  Virginia  and  not  Southern  France. 
The  proof  sheets  of  this  story  must  never  have  come  under 
the  author's  eye,  for  mistakes  abound;  to  mention  just  a 
few,  the  river  Aude  is  sometimes  called  the  Ande,  while  the 
Ariege  appears  as  the  Aniege. 

Evan  of  Foix,  which  was  suggested  by  the  Froissart  Bal- 
lads of  Philip  and  in  particular  by  Cooke's  reading  of 
Dumas 's  Agenor  de  Mauleon,  was  begun  in  the  fall  of  1847 
and  finished  the  following  spring.  It  was  never  published 
as  a  unit,  but  was  "cut"  into  two  parts,  each  of  which 
appeared  serially,  unsigned,  in  the  Messenger.  The  Last 
Days  of  Gaston  Vhozbus,  A  Chronicle  Not  Found  in  Messire 
Jehan  Froissart  ran  from  October,  1854,  to  January,  1855, 
and  A  Kingdom  Mortgaged  appeared  monthly  from  May 


26  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

to  September  in  the  latter  year.  In  scene,  manner,  and 
characters  the  Evan  of  Foix  stories  differ  little  from  The 
Knight  of  Espalion.  Their  publication  seems  to  have 
aroused  no  stir.  In  fact,  mechanically,  they  may  actually 
have  caused  their  readers  some  annoyance ;  for  Gaston  Phoe- 
bus is  ended  with  the  cryptic  note, ' '  The  sequel  to  the  events 
just  narrated,  is  properly  reserved  for  another  occasion," 
while  the  "to  be  continued"  or  "to  be  concluded"  was 
thrice  left  off  the  installments  of  A  Kingdom  Mortgaged. 
These  stories  have  slight  kinship  if  any  with  the  author's 
novels  of  the  following  decade.  For  his  next  fiction  of 
book  length  Cooke  turned  from  a  distant  century  and  a 
far-off  unknown  land  to  the  very  Virginia  border  which  as 
a  child  he  knew  from  observation  and  tradition. 

Cooke  may  have  given  some  attention  to  the  private  study 
of  law  in  1850,  for  his  long  and  uncongenial  apprenticeship 
was  soon  to  be  merged  into  constantly  irksome  and  unsuc- 
cessful practice.  "On  the  27th  of  February  [1851],"  he 
recorded  in  his  diary, ' '  I  hung  out  my  sign — or  rather  mine 
and  Pa's,  for  it  runs  'John  R.  Cooke  &  Jno.  Esten  Cooke: 
Law  Office ' — at  a  cost  of  two  dollars,  and  yesterday  Brown 
offered  me  two  cases. ' '  A  later  entry  says :  "  I  commenced 
the  practice  of  law  on  the  first  day  of  March."  Perhaps 
Cooke  qualified  that  day,  since  his  entry  for  March  2  refers 
to  his  fulfilling  this  requirement  without  embarrassment 
though  he  was,  as  he  puts  it,  the  ' '  observed  of  all  observers. ' ' 
His  first  case  came  in  April  and  he  spoke  for  three  quarters 
of  an  hour,  receiving  the  approval  of  friends  present,  but 
not  pleasing  himself.  The  dread  of  losing  his  poise  must 
have  obsessed  him,  for  he  again  with  satisfaction  recalls 
his  calmness.  Law  became  even  more  irksome  to  the  lawyer 
than  it  had  been  to  the  student.  Because  of  his  desultory, 
unguided  study  Cooke  now  felt  imperatively  the  need  of 
continual  application.    He  resolved  on  this  again  and  again, 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION   27 

but  always  failed.  For  twelve  months  after  his  admittance 
to  the  bar,  he  vowed  to  quit  writing,  but  could  not.  "Writ- 
ing and  smoking  went  hand  in  hand  and  he  condemned 
them  together.  Such  passages  as  the  following  abound 
in  his  journal:  "I  do  not  study  (law).  My  mind  is  thor- 
oughly dissipated,  and  I  only  dream  and  scheme  like  an 
oriental  without  doing  anything.  Tobacco  is  partly  the 
cause  and  that  knocks  in  the  head  all  calm,  quiet  applica- 
tion as  completely  as  opium.  I  am  alternately  raised  to 
the  heavens  and  sunk  into  a  horrible  depression  of  spirits. 
I  am  ridiculous  in  my  thoughts,  irrational  in  my  calcula- 
tions, start  at  the  least  sudden  noise,  and  magnify  every 
molehill  into  a  mountain,  into  an  Alps.  My  whole  life  is 
alternately  a  train  of  dreamy,  delightful  reveries,  under  the 
effect  of  coffee  and  tobacco  after  breakfast,  and,  when  that 
effect  is  worn  off,  of  depressed  foreboding  misery.  Now 
I  swear  to  change  all  this.  I  cannot  at  once  give  up  to- 
bacco, more  especially  when  going  to  the  country  where 
there  is  so  much  idleness.  But  on  my  return,  with  the 
assistance  of  God,  I  will  throw  this  present  life  to  the  dogs. 
I  will  be  fixed  in  my  room  and  I  will  study  law,  history  and 
the  modern  languages.  I  will  discipline  my  mind  and 
throw  'general  literature'  to  the  devil.  I  will  smoke  mod- 
erately and  never  write.  .  .  .  But  also  I  will  never  scheme 
out  literary  undertakings.  Tobacco  makes  me  irritable.  .  .  . 
I  will  never  more  be  so  completely  under  its  influence. 
With  the  first  day  of  January  1852  I  commence  a  new  life 
ab  initio.  May  God  give  me  strength  to  keep  my  resolution. ' ' 
Many  circumstances  combined  to  render  impossible  a 
strict  adherence  to  this  proposed  regimen.  In  the  first 
place  Cooke  allowed  himself  such  loopholes  as  "in  modera- 
tion," and  invariably  decided  to  begin  his  severe  self- 
discipline  not  directly  but  at  some  future  date — in  this 
case  after  twenty-eight  days.    In  his  abnegations  he  always 


28  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

allowed  himself  society  as  a  necessity,  and  society  at  this 
period  of  his  life  led  to  serenades,  suppers  with  young  men 
at  the  hotels,  soda  water  with  girl  cousins,  and  the  opera. 
These  diversions  afforded  material  for  description,  but  did 
not  further  a  knowledge  of  law.  Such  of  his  friends  as 
remembered  the  old  Franklin  Debating  Society  days  ad- 
vised him  to  be  an  out-and-out  man  of  letters.  The  little 
daughters  of  Philip,  to  whom  he  wrote  often  on  pretty  note 
paper  and  sent  many  presents,  wanted  most  of  all  to  read 
something  else  written  by  their  "dear,  dear  uncle."  And 
if  the  prospects  of  a  support  by  his  pen  were  chimerical, 
he  would  at  least  have  less  aggressive  competition  in  writ- 
ing than  in  law,  and  he  had  made  an  approved  start.  He 
was  already  one  of  the  mainstays  of  the  Messenger,  and 
edited  the  March,  1851,  number  for  John  Reuben  Thompson. 

Thompson  and  Cooke  were  intimate  associates  at  this 
time ;  they  visited  the  river  islands,  walked  again  and  again 
across  the  Danville  bridge,  and  were  invited  together  to 
country  homes.  One  of  Thompson 's  most  interesting  poems 
is  "A  Letter,"  addressed  to  his  friend  who  was  enjoying 
the  country  in  August,  1852,  while  the  editor  sweltered  in 
Richmond.  The  question  of  pay  for  Cooke's  articles  seems, 
nevertheless,  to  have  been  a  delicate  one.  Cooke  felt  that 
if  his  productions  were  good  enough  for  the  Messenger  to 
print  by  the  dozen  they  ought  to  be  worth  something.  "If 
he  expects  me  to  write  for  him  forever  he's  mistaken — 
without  some  remuneration.  I  like  him,  however,  and  shall 
avoid  any  quarrel,  which  I  do  not  anticipate  but  am  ready 
for."  "I  want  money  most  confoundedly  and  Thompson 
is  or  says  he  is  so  poor  that  all  hope  from  that  quarter  is 
gone." 

As  time  went  on,  Cooke's  vows  to  cease  writing  became 
more  and  more  vehement  but  were  the  more  easily  broken. 
Finally  he  allowed  himself  to  write  when  on  visits,  then 


EARLY   LIFE— CHOOSING   A   PROFESSION   29 

short  pieces  in  Richmond,  and  soon,  even  in  Richmond, 
longer  articles  the  composition  of  which  produced  no  nerv- 
ous excitement.  He  had,  meanwhile,  begun  to  seek  recogni- 
tion in  the  North.  He  had  met  and  had  been  encouraged 
by  Rufus  W.  Griswold,  who  contemplated  an  edition  of  the 
"Works"  of  Philip.  Submitting  a  paper  on  Poe,1  whom  he 
had  heard  as  a  lecturer  and  knew  as  a  gossiped-about  figure 
of  note  in  the  city,  he  had  tried  for,  anticipated,  and  failed 
to  receive  one  of  Sartain's  prizes.  A  letter  to  the  editor  of 
Godey's  brought  the  reply  that  the  magazine  had  enough 
manuscripts  on  hand  ' '  for  two  years. ' '  The  Harpers,  how- 
ever, accompanied  a  rejection  with  a  courteous  intimation 
of  willingness  to  see  other  pieces.  Cooke  began  a  story  at 
once.  ' '  This  is  not  breaking  my  resolution, ' '  he  concluded, 
"I  always  excepted  writing  for  pay."  A  few  weeks  later 
the  following  entry  was  made  in  the  journal:  "On  the 
10th  of  March  [1852]  I  received  from  Harper  and  Bros. 
$10  for  'Barry  and  Courtlandt  the  Tall/  the  first  money 
I  ever  got  for  fiction2  writing."  This  was  the  price  which 
Cooke  had  set  upon  the  manuscript.  He  received  it  at  a 
time  when  it  assisted  his  sick  father,  a  circumstance  which 
he  always  considered  of  good  omen.  Thompson  also  was 
willing  to  pay  when  forced  to  the  wall.  The  next  entry 
in  the  diary  records  that  he  took  "Peony"  at  $1.50  a  page. 
Cooke  became  thus,  almost  in  spite  of  himself,  a  profes- 
sional man  of  letters. 

i  Edgar  Allan  Poe  went  to  Richmond  in  1849  "to  deliver  his  lec- 
ture on  'The  Poetic  Principle'  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing. 
The  lecturer  stood  in  a  graceful  attitude,  leaning  one  hand  on  a 
small  table  beside  him,  and  his  wonderfully  clear  and  musical  voice 
speedily  brought  the  audience  under  its  spell."  —  J.  E.  C.  in  his 
journal. 

2  The  use  of  the  word  "fiction"  does  not  imply  that  Cooke  had 
received  pay  for  other'  forms  of  composition;  he  had,  however,  be- 
cause of  his  excellent  penmanship,  earned  money  as  a  copyist. 


CHAPTER  II 
GENTLEMAN  AND  NOVELIST  OF  OLD  VIRGINIA 

When  John  Reuben  Thompson  bought  the  Southern  Lit- 
erary Messenger  in  the  fall  of  1847,  he  announced  in  the 
October  number  that  he  would  continue  the  practice  of 
law.  In  1852  Cooke  entertained  a  similar  idea,  but,  like 
Thompson,  dismissed  it  in  a  very  short  time.  In  these  days 
of  his  dwindling  neglected  practice  he  received  from  David 
Strother  a  good-natured  taunting  letter  of  congratulation 
on  a  supposed  fee  of  a  thousand  dollars.  Apparently  the 
last  trace  of  Cooke's  legal  career  came  a  few  years  later 
when  Derby  and  Jackson,  publishers  of  The  Last  of  the 
Foresters,  asked  him  to  act  as  their  attorney  in  a  case  in- 
volving the  failure  of  a  Richmond  bookseller.  The  definite 
assumption  of  a  literary  career  produced  little  change  in 
Cooke's  life.  As  he  grew  older  and  better  known,  he  nat- 
urally figured  more  largely  in  the  intellectual  circles  of 
Richmond ;  but,  because  of  the  salability  of  his  writings  and 
his  varied  duties,  he  nearly  neglected  his  journal.  In  fact 
he  expressly  states  that  for  three  years  in  the  late  fifties  he 
kept  no  record  whatever  of  his  thoughts  and  performances. 
Enough  information  is  available,  however,  to  prevent  any 
interruption  in  the  continuity  of  his  life-story. 

Cooke's  sisters  had  already  married  when  his  mother  died 
in  1850;  so  the  father  relinquished  the  house  he  had  been 
occupying  and  became  a  roomer  and  boarder.  "The  Clif- 
ton" was  for  some  time  the  joint  home  of  the  father  and 
son,  but  much  of  the  latter 's  work  at  this  time  was  done  in 

30 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  31 

a  quiet  room  set  aside  for  his  use  by  Mammy  Giddy  in 
her  house  in  ' '  Gullination, ' '  a  low  section  of  Richmond. 
John  Esten  later  occupied  quarters  on  Eleventh  Street  at 
"Goddin's,"  a  rooming-house  which  subsequently  housed 
the  Confederate  States  Post  Office.  He  also  spent  some 
time  at  the  Richmond  home  of  the  Duvals,  the  family  into 
which  his  sister  Sal  had  married. 

Cooke 's  work  in  the  fifties  was  interrupted  by  no  serious 
illness,  but  he  was  often  troubled  with  a  provoking  neural- 
gia of  the  teeth,  a  worry  from  which  he  was  destined  never 
to  be  free.  He  complained  also  of  a  nervousness  which  he 
fortunately  outgrew  as  time  went  on.  His  use  of  tobacco 
no  longer  prompted  such  violent  resolutions,  but  letters 
from  members  of  his  family  still  counseled  moderation, 
lest  he  inflict  upon  himself  "some  organic  disease."  In  his 
early  twenties  Cooke  wore  for  a  time  a  full  beard  and  ' '  long 
cavalier  hair."  Describing  this  in  his  journal  he  complains 
terribly  of  heat,  the  most  patent  advantage  of  being  a 
roundhead  seeming  never  to  have  occurred  to  him.  He  sub- 
sequently reduced  his  beard  to  the  mustache  and  imperial 
which  he  wore  in  later  life. 

Among  Cooke's  papers  there  is  a  memorandum  giving  a 
detailed  expense  account  for  the  year  1852.  From  this  it 
may  be  learned  that  he  was  a  subscriber  to  the  Richmond 
Dispatch,  bought  the  first  two  monthly  numbers  of  Bleak 
House,  bought  an  occasional  Harper's,  which  he  would 
later  send  to  friends  in  the  Valley,  and  attended  the  theatre 
some  twenty  times.  His  greatest  dissipation  of  the  year 
was  occasioned  by  a  visit  to  Richmond  of  the  well-known 
theatrical  family,  the  Batemans.  He  saw  them  perform 
more  than  a  half-dozen  times,  bought  bonbons  for  the  child- 
actresses,  and  finally  purchased  a  picture  of  them  in  The 
Young  Couple.  The  gifts  to  "Mammy"  totaled  $4.65  for 
nine  months.    Some  of  the  items  are  humorous  as  well  as 


32  JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

autobiographical,  for  example :  ' '  mint  juleps . . .  25,  cursed 
folly."  Such  entries,  however,  were  not  numerous,  those 
for  drink  totaling  much  less  than  those  for  tobacco,  while 
the  latter  amounted  to  only  some  six  or  seven  dollars  for 
the  nine  months  spent  in  Richmond.  Cooke  perhaps  drank 
more  at  Christmas  time  than  usual  as  the  following  ' '  memo ' ' 
would  suggest:  "In  drinking  sweet  drinks,  '  bottom  '  with 
grog  and  'top  off '  with  the  same.  I  did  last  night  and  am 
fresh  as  a  lark:  decidedly  important  mem.  about  Xmas." 
The  year's  expenses  totaled  four  hundred  and  eighty-five 
dollars.  "Is  it  possible?"  Cooke  asks.  "But  old  board 
and  new  clothes  make  it :  and  so  it  is  no  fair  exhibit  of  my 
expenditure.    A  new  leaf  this  1853!" 

Cooke's  Christmases  and  summers  were  usually  spent 
with  relatives  or  friends  living  near  the  Valley  home  of 
his  childhood.  He  seems  to  have  gone  every  October  to 
visit  in  Amelia  County  the  Stegers,  the  marriage  family 
of  his  sister  Mary.  In  these  journeys  and  visits  he  was  ex- 
tending the  knowledge  of  Virginia  which  he  had  begun  to 
acquire  in  boyhood  from  stories  told  by  his  father  and  had 
later  developed  by  eager  and  wide  study.  All  his  experi- 
ences afforded  subjects  for  the  numerous  articles  he  was 
now  producing.  Historical  narratives,  as  well  as  fictitious 
ones,  were  based  on  his  well-loved  History  of  the  Valley  of 
Virginia  by  Kercheval,  supplemented  by  a  first-hand  knowl- 
edge of  the  lower  Valley.  The  familiarity  with  Fairfax 
and  Washington  family  history  and  legend  served  as  a 
basis  for  '  ■  Early  Haunts  of  Washington, ' '  in  the  New  York 
Times,  for  the  handsomely  illustrated  "Greenway  Court" 
which  was  featured  in  Putnam's  for  June,  1857,  and  for 
a  romance  which  ran  as  a  serial  in  the  Messenger  and  was 
later  issued  in  book  form  as  Fairfax.  A  journey  from 
Richmond  to  the  Valley  by  the  water  route  resulted  in  a 
sonnet,  "Sunset  on  the  Chesapeake."     "For  my  trip  to 


NOVELIST    OP    OLD    VIRGINIA  33 

Amelia, ' '  he  wrote  in  his  soon  to  be  neglected  diary,  *  *  see 
'A  Handful  of  Autumn  Leaves'  in  the  December  [1852] 
Messenger."  The  article  here  referred  to  was  a  collection 
of  seven  short  easy-chair  essays:  "In  the  Woods, "  "Some 
Authors  and  Books,"  "Embers  of  a  Wood  Fire,"  "Old 
and  New  Songs,"  "Sunlight,  Winds  and  Music,"  "The  En- 
thusiastic Sportsman,"  "The  End  of  Autumn" — titles 
which  illustrate  the  turn  Cooke's  talent  was  taking  at  this 
period.  He  was  fond  of  historical  fact,  but  he  liked  to 
contemplate  it  in  terms  of  romance.  He  was  not  only  a 
literary  critic  but  a  critic  of  manners  who  saw  in  the  past 
fine  ideals  which  had  been  sadly  departed  from.  This  theme 
afforded  him  the  material  for  several  magazine  articles ;  his 
first  contribution  to  Putnam* s  (August,  1853)  actually 
bore  the  title,  "Virginia  Past  and  Present."  Exceedingly 
modern  seems  "Minuet  and  Polka"  with  its  reference  to 
the  "arm  around  the  waist,  the  breath  upon  the  cheek,  the 
head  upon  the  shoulder. ' '  The  author,  of  course,  presents 
a  brief  for  the  old-fashioned  dance:  "The  minuet  was 
delicacy,  courtesy,  lofty-toned  respect — in  one  word — 
chivalry."  Cooke  was  a  skilful  literary  parodist.  He  was 
the  author  of  the  "Unpublished  Mas.  from  the  Portfolios 
of  the  Most  Celebrated  Authors.  By  Motley  Ware,  Esq.," 
which  the  Duyckinck  brothers  published  in  the  Literary 
World  during  1853.  Along  with  the  burlesques  of  Carlyle, 
Dumas,  and  others  Cooke  solemnly  included  one  of  himself, 
or  rather  of  such  of  his  work  as  had  appeared  under  his 
pseudonym,  "Pen  Ingleton,  Esq."  With  unerring  instinct 
he  chose  as  a  likely  subject  his  great  fondness  for  autumn  : 
"The  flutter  and  glitter  of  the  golden  autumn  leaves  are 
once  more  in  my  eyes  and  in  my  heart." 

In  addition  to  his  abundant  and  varied  work  for  periodi- 
cals, Cooke  began  toward  the  close  of  1852  his  first  serious 
effort  as  a  novelist.    Leather  Stocking  and  Silk;  or,  Hunter 


34  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

John  Myers  and  his  Times.  A  Story  of  the  Valley  of  Vir- 
ginia1 was  finished  the  following  spring  and  its  author, 
having  gone  in  May  as  far  as  New  York  with  "Wattle" 
Leigh  on  the  latter 's  way  to  California,  arranged  with  the 
Harpers  for  its  publication.  Cooke  experienced  keen  joy 
in  correcting  the  proof,  which  he  received  in  Virginia  in 
driblets;  but  when  the  book  was  on  the  eve  of  its  appear- 
ance the  Harper  fire  destroyed  everything  except  a  stereo- 
typed impression  preserved  in  a  vault.  The  author  first 
learned  of  the  fire  from  the  New  York  Times — which  of 
course  did  not  print  a  list  of  the  contents  of  the  vault — 
and  despairingly  believed  that  his  labor  had  been  in  vain. 
The  Harper  presses  were  soon  going  again,  however,  and 
the  summer  of  1854  saw  the  appearance  of  Leather  Stock- 
ing and  Silk. 

Irving  was  the  literary  grand  old  man  of  Cooke's  youth, 
and  Leather  Stocking  and  Silk  owes  him  more  than  a  little. 
Contemporary  American  critics  seem  not  to  have  noticed 
this  debt  to  the  author  of  the  Sketch-Book,  but  the  London 
Athenwum  referred  to  it  and  Cooke  admitted  it.  The 
names  of  several  important  characters  are  Dutch.  The 
style  of  the  book  is  Irvingesque,  particularly  in  passages 
which  contrast  the  old  with  the  new  in  the  life  of  the  Vir- 
ginia border.  Many  of  the  chapters  are  little  more  than 
genial  "familiar"  essays  wholly  unnecessary  for  the  ad- 
vance of  the  plot.  The  Cooper  influence  was  more  obvious 
but  less  subtle.  The  ' '  Leatherstocking  Tales ' '  suggested  the 
title,  and  as  a  border  tale  the  novel  belongs  to  the  school 
in  which  Cooper  holds  primacy. 

This  initial  volume  exemplifies  Professor  Brander  Mat- 
thews's  statement  that  an  author,  in  his  first  book,  tries  to 
tell  everything  he  knows.  Cooke  himself  says  of  the  genesis 
of  Leather  Stocking  and  Silk:  "The  story  was  suggested 

i  In  this  and  other  titles,  Cooke's  punctuation  has  been  retained. 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  35 

by  my  father's  account  of  old  Hunter  John  Myers,  whom 
lie  had  known — and  I  worked  into  it  the  scenes  of  Barry; 
old  traditions  I  had  heard  of  some  people  playing  cards 
on  a  tombstone  of  the  old  Martinsburg  Church,  seizing  and 
fleeing  on  a  fine  mare  of  my  grandfather  Pendleton,  etc. 
In  drawing  Max,  Jr.,  I  had  my  dear  Buck  Lyons  in  mind, 
and  M.  Pantoufle  was  Pa's  fencing  master,  M.  Xaupi." 
The  student  of  Cooke's  life  can  see  clearly  the  sources  of 
many  other  elements  of  the  book.  It  shows  a  kinship  with 
his  magazine  essays  and  stories.  In  the  case  of  the  * '  Scenes 
of  Barry"  the  adaptation  was  so  complete  that  Cooke 
"bought  back"  from  the  Harpers  the  article  for  which  he 
had  first  received  pay.  The  Bateman  children  inspired 
the  theatrical  scene  in  which  little  Sally  plays  a  star  part. 
The  long  speech  of  the  old  negro  woman  is  a  tribute  to 
Cooke's  negro  "mammy."  The  career  of  the  elder  Max, 
who  goes  away  from  the  Valley  and  returns  to  it  a  dis- 
tinguished man,  parallels  in  part  that  of  his  creator.  A 
fondness  for  Richter,  expressed  in  the  autobiography,  is 
seen  in  the  chapter  named  for  that  writer.  Some  of  Cooke's 
own  poems  are  interpolated  as  the  compositions  of  one  of 
the  characters. 

Leather  Stocking  and  Silk  is,  in  spite  of  its  scant  four 
hundred  pages,  divided  into  three  parts  and  ninety-five 
chapters.  As  might  be  expected  from  such  a  structure  and 
the  heterogeneity  of  sources,  the  plot — here  sketched  in 
briefest  outline — is  somewhat  weak.  Maximilian  Courtlandt 
is  in  love  with  his  cousin,  Nina  Von  Horn,  who,  however, 
marries  a  solemn,  self-important  but  promising  lawyer 
named  Lyttleton.  Max  has  a  small  brother,  Barry,  who 
loves  Sally,  the  little  daughter  of  Hunter  John.  Five  years 
elapse.  Max  returns  from  Paris  a  doctor  of  medicine  and 
goes  everywhere  in  the  neighborhood,  but  no  one  knows 
him  until  he  chooses  to  reveal  his  identity.    Barry  marries 


36  JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

Sally  Myers,  and  Max  marries  Nina,  now  a  consolable 
widow  of  two  years'  standing.  Twenty  years  pass.  Nina 
has  died  and  Max  marries  Miss  Josephine  Emberton,  whom 
he  knew  in  his  youth.  Barry  now  has  two  daughters,  one 
of  whom  marries  a  brother  of  Miss  Emberton,  the  other 
marrying  Max,  Jr.,  Max's  only  son.  Hunter  John,  who 
remembers  the  Indians,  and  M.  Pantoufle,  the  dancing- 
master,  come  through  the  three  parts  without  matrimonial 
entanglements  and  die  at  the  end.  Such  a  frame-work 
could  hardly  be  the  basis  of  a  great  composition,  but  Leather 
Stocking  and  Silk  possessed  some  real  merits  which  pointed 
to  better  subsequent  work.  The  easy,  graceful,  flowing 
style  is  little  inferior  to  the  author 's  best  achievement.  The 
book  has  a  certain  value  as  social  history.  Some  of  the 
conversations  sparkle;  they  are  essentially  transcripts  from 
life,  as  may  be  seen  from  actual  conversations  recorded  in 
the  diaries.  Cooke  prided  himself  upon  the  accuracy  of  his 
delineation  of  Hunter  John,  who  saw  the  pines  cut  down 
to  make  the  main  street  of  Martinsburg,  and  yet  lived  to 
see  a  polite  society,  with  its  appurtenances  and  conventions, 
press  forward  upon  the  receding  frontier.  Even  then  on 
the  border  were  met  the  characters  Cooke  loved  best  to 
draw:  " elegantly  dressed  ladies,  radiant  with  rich  falling 
lace,  and  supporting  on  their  white  foreheads  curiously 
fashioned  towers  of  hair;  gracefully  attentive  gentlemen 
with  powdered  locks,  stiff-collared  coats,  and  silk  stockings 
and  knee-buckles."  Not  even  Barry — ill-tempered  young 
bully  that  he  is — can  dissipate  the  atmosphere  of  kindliness 
which  pervades  the  entire  composition,  and  reflects  the  tem- 
perament of  the  genial  author,  who  says  ''to  the  reader:" 
"If  the  book  be  found  entertaining  and  (above  all  else) 
the  spirit  of  it  pure,  the  writer  will  be  more  than  satisfied. ' ' 
The  first  of  these  wishes  was  perhaps  not  realized.  Leather 
Stocking  and  Silk  split  in  halves  the  great  decade  which 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  37 

began  with  Vanity  Fair  and  ended  with  Adam  Bede;  but 
Cooke,  unlike  his  fellow-countryman  Hawthorne,  did  not 
share  largely  in  the  great  novel-writing  power  then  abroad 
in  the  English-speaking  world.  Fitting  it  is,  however,  that 
the  second  wish  should  have  been  expressed  in  the  preface 
of  his  first  book.  It  was  fulfilled  to  the  letter.  In  a  score 
of  novels  and  hundreds  of  shorter  compositions  he  did  not 
make  use  of  an  impure  word  or  situation. 

When  Leather  Stocking  and  Silk  was  accepted  by  the 
Harpers,  its  author  at  once  began  another  frontier  romance 
which  dealt  with  figures  of  such  historical  importance  as 
the  sixth  Lord  Fairfax  and  the  youthful  George  Washing- 
ton. The  historical  period  of  the  new  work  antedated  that 
of  the  first  novel  by  about  fifty  years,  and  for  his  back- 
ground Cooke  relied  abundantly  upon  Kercheval.  Fairfax, 
as  the  book  was  eventually  called,  bears  as  a  border  ro- 
mance a  kinship  to  Leather  Stocking  and  Silk,  and  as  a 
colonial  romance  points  to  the  author's  third  book,  The 
Virginia  Comedians.  The  germ  of  the  latter  so  fascinated 
Cooke  that  he  dropped  the  nearly  finished  Fairfax  in  the 
fall  of  1853  and  devoted  himself  to  the  more  newly  con- 
ceived work.  The  abandoned  novel  was  completed  in  May, 
1858,  and  was  published  in  the  Messenger  from  April  to 
December  the  following  year  as  Greenway  Court;  or,  The 
Bloody  Ground.  With  very  slight  changes  the  serial  was 
issued  in  volume  form  by  Carleton  in  1868  under  the 
title  of  Fairfax:  or,  The  Master  of  Greenway  Court.  A 
Chronicle  of  the  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah. 

Cooke  left  no  record  of  exactly  how  much  of  Fairfax  was 
yet  to  be  done  when  he  first  laid  it  aside,  but  it  is  probable 
that  the  very  dramatic  conclusion  was  written  later.  The 
work  is  markedly  more  entertaining  than  Leather  Stocking 
and  Silk  and  is  a  not  wholly  unworthy  forerunner  of  The 
Virginia  Comedians.     A  youthful  love-affair  of  Washing- 


38  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

ton,  who  found  time  to  survey  the  maidens  as  well  as  the 
earl's  domain;  the  ensnaring  by  a  " Lamia' '  of  Falcon- 
bridge  and  Fairfax,  who  turn  out  to  be  son  and  father; 
the  prowess  and  the  courting  of  a  robust  u  Injun  "-hating 
Captain  Wagner:  these  are  the  ingredients  of  the  plot. 
The  denouement  is  precipitated  by  an  Indian  raid  and  a  re- 
prisal imitated  closely  from  The  Last  of  the  Mohicans.  Here, 
as  in  Cooper's  tale,  death  solves  the  problem  of  the  noble 
red  youth  who  loves  beyond  the  bounds  of  his  race.  There 
is,  too,  an  exceedingly  fascinating  woman,  a  combination  on 
a  more  refined  plane  of  Judith  and  Hetty  Hutter ;  though, 
unfortunately,  Bertha  Argal's  insanity  is  narrated  rather 
than  actually  depicted.  To  the  unsuspecting  reader,  she  is 
merely  rather  witchingly  endowed  with  "  those  wiles  which 
it  is  the  sad  misfortune  of  woman  to  possess,"  as  she  her- 
self states  after  the  author  finally  declares  her  criminally  in- 
sane. An  epilogue  handles  effectively  a  scene  in  which  the 
aged  Fairfax  learns  shortly  before  his  death  that  his  for- 
mer protege,  "that  curly-pate,"  has  destroyed  British 
dominion  in  Virginia.  A  great  weakness  of  Cooke's  his- 
torical fiction  is  in  Fairfax  seen  for  the  first  time.  In  treat- 
ing actual  persons  he  does  not  always  distinguish  between 
what  might  have  happened  and  what  is  generally  known 
not  to  have  happened.  He  discredits  the  essential  historical 
truth  of  his  narrative  by  giving  a  son  to  the  bachelor 
Fairfax. 

The  annual  state  fair  held  in  Richmond  about  the  first 
of  November  has  long  been  a  rather  notable  occasion  for 
the  people  of  the  city  and  the  state.  In  1853  the  event  was 
of  much  more  than  usual  significance  for  John  Esten 
Cooke.  A  full-fledged  author  now,  patronized  by  the  Har- 
pers, he  attended  the  fair  with  Thompson  and  Paul  Hayne, 
the  latter  being  on  a  visit  from  Charleston.  But  the  crown- 
ing event  was  the  presence  of  the  Batemans,  whose  pre- 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  39 

vious  visits  Cooke  remembered  most  pleasantly,  since  he  had 
known  intimately  the  little  actresses  who  had  afforded  "the 
very  atmosphere  in  which  the  adventures  of  Max  were 
shaped. "  Bateman  was,  as  usual,  most  cordial  to  Cooke 
and  invited  him  to  dine.  ' '  Kate  and  Ellen  remembered  me 
spite  of  the  ten  thousand  faces  they  have  since  seen  .  .  . 
children  will  not  stay  children:  the  little  girls  are  taller, 
their  faces  less  round  and  infantile,  their  acting  less  the 
vagary  of  children.  Well,  so  be  it :  but  one  great  and  happy 
change  I  observed  in  Kate.  At  those  unworthy  double- 
entendres  in  the  Young  Couple  she  did  not  smile  .  .  .  and 
seemed  to  be  ashamed  .  .  .  went  through  the  part  with 
manifest  repugnance.  Poor  child!  She  is  getting  old 
enough  to  feel  as  an  incipient  woman  the  unworthy  part 
she  plays.  Thank  heaven  for  it  and  may  they  both  soon 
leave  the  stage  and  become  children  again."  Cooke  went 
to  see  them  often.  He  carried  them  "little  cologne  kegs," 
candy,  and  books.  "I  am  in  love  with  Kate,  the  charming 
little  rascal  with  the  bright  eyes  and  curls,  and  sharp  talk, 
too!"  Cooke  even  spoke  to  the  father  about  the  advisa- 
bility of  the  girls'  discontinuing  their  stage  careers.  Bate- 
man assured  him  of  an  intention  to  settle  within  a  year  on 
a  place  he  owned  near  Cincinnati,  but  his  declared  inten- 
tion was  distrusted  by  Cooke, — justly,  as  events  proved. 

The  idea  of  making  literary  use  of  Kate  Bateman  and 
her  profession  was  first  suggested  by  a  paragraph  which 
Cooke  clipped  from  the  odds-and-ends  column  of  a  news- 
paper, and  later  pasted  in  his  scrapbook:  "The  first  play 
performed  in  America  by  a  regular  company  of  commedians 
[sic]  was  the  'Merchant  of  Venice,'  at  Williamsburg,  the 
capital  of  Virginia,  on  the  5th  of  September,  1762  [sic] .  The 
commedians  under  the  management  of  Mr.  Hallam1  em- 

i  The  Hallam  here  referred  to  was  Lewis,  a  brother  of  the  English 
theatrical  manager,  William  Hallam.     Lewis  Hallam's  company  be- 


40  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

barked  in  the  Charming  Sally,  Capt.  Lee,  early  in  the  month 
of  May  of  that  year,  and  after  a  voyage  of  six  weeks,  a  short 
passage  in  those  days,  arrived  safely  in  Yorktown,  Vir- 
ginia.''  Some  of  these  statements  are  not  true,  of  course, 
but  the  clipping  served  to  connect  Cooke 's  dominant  interest 
in  Kate  Bateman  with  the  Colonial  period  which  he  had 
long  worshiped  and  was  already  ambitiously  preparing  to 
treat  historically.  His  visualization  of  Kate  Bateman  as  a 
heroine  took  the  author  back  into  the  past  with  a  dashing 
enthusiasm  which  made  The  Virginia  Comedians  by  far 
the  finest  of  his  books. 

A  few  days  after  seeing  the  seminal  paragraph,  Cooke 
"constructed  the  whole  story"  of  The  Virginia  Comedians. 
"It  only  remains  to  do  the  mechanical  part,"  he  wrote  in 
his  journal.  He  was  advancing  slowly,  when  on  December 
23  a  letter  from  the  Harpers  announced  that  the  plates  of 
Leather  Stocking  and  Silk  had  been  saved.  "Hurrah!"  he 
wrote, ' '  I  trusted  in  Providence  and  am  repaid. ' '  He  threw 
away  his  three-page  false  start  and,  beginning  anew  with 
a  vigor  which  never  abated,  finished  the  first  book  at  eleven 
o'clock  at  night  on  February  8,  1854,  and  the  entire  work 
by  March  3.  He  found  great  joy  in  his  labor.  "The  Vir- 
ginia Comedians  has  stopped  this  journal — never  have  I 
worked  so  hard.  I  have  done  100  pages  a  day  repeatedly. ' n 
He  also  realized  that  he  was  producing  a  notable  composi- 
tion. ' '  Mr.  Effingham  and  Beatrice  are  what  I  wanted  them 
to  be,  and  I  have  developed  their  characters  to  my  satisfac- 
tion.   The  incidents  are  full  of  dramatic  effect — Charles's 

gan  its  American  career  with  "The  Merchant  of  Venice"  at  Williams- 
burg, September  5,  1752.  For  interesting  details,  see  William 
Dunlap,  by  Oral  Sumner  Coad.  (New  York,  The  Dunlap  Society, 
1917.) 

i  Throughout  his  life  Cooke  preferred  to  write  upon  sheets  of  paper 
about  five  by  eight  inches. 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  41 

colloquies  with  Henry  among  my  best  writing.  Lanky  and 
Mr.  Crow  are  developed  to  my  satisfaction  and  the  penulti- 
mate chapter  is  to  my  taste — I  doubted  about  it  as  I  did 
about  killing  Beatrice.  But  the  book  had  to  end  with  an 
idea :  and  death  crowns  her.  .  .  .  The  book  will  hit  I  think 
if  ever  published.  ...  It  is  my  best  work." 

Cooke's  pride  was  justified  and  his  intense  application 
was  rewarded.  The  Virginia  Comedians:  or,  Old  Days  in 
the  Old  Dominion  was  published  in  two  volumes  by  D. 
Appleton  and  Company  in  1854,  and  was  several  times  re- 
printed. Since  1916  it  has  been  out  of  print,  but  it  deserves 
to  be  kept  alive.  It  should  be  neglected  by  no  serious  stu- 
dent of  American  fiction.  It  is  of  value  to  the  social  his- 
torian, is  interesting  to  the  student  of  the  early  American 
theater,  and  should  prove  fascinating  to  those  who  take 
delight  in  things  pre-Revolutionary.  At  the  opening  of 
the  thirty-second  chapter  of  the  second  book  Cooke  states 
that  he  "aims  at  presenting  in  a  brief  and  rapid  manner, 
some  view,  however  slight,  of  the  various  classes  of  individ- 
uals who  formed  that  Virginia  of  1765."  This  inclusion  of 
"various  classes"  marked  a  decided  advance  in  Virginia 
fiction,  the  writers  of  which  had  seen  in  Colonial  Virginia 
chiefly  cavaliers  and  servants.  The  low-class  characters 
are  not,  however,  successfully  drawn.  They  either  are 
meagerly  sketched,  lack  the  appearance  of  reality,  or  are 
portrayed  merely  in  a  subordinate  relation  to  some  superior 
person.  Cooke  was  never  skilful  in  his  delineation  of  the 
negro.  With  the  exception  of  Mr.  Crow,  an  uncommon  type, 
negroes  serve  in  The  Virginia  Comedians  almost  solely  as 
bridle-rein  receivers  for  dismounting  "cavaliers." 

With  these  reservations  Cooke  achieved  his  aims  notably. 
The  middle-class  Waters  family  is  well  portrayed.  The 
upper  part  of  society  is  brilliantly  depicted.  The  bluff  old 
head  of  Effingham  Hall,  known  everywhere  as  a  prime  aris- 


42  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

tocrat,  slouches  and  hobnobs  as  he  pleases  with  no  loss  of 
dignity,  but  expects  all  views  to  take  color  from  his : '  '  Every 
man  a  vote!  "Who  speaks  of  it?  Who  broaches  such  an 
absurdity?"  His  interlocutor  hastens  to  say  "a  parcel  of 
hair-brained  [sic]  young  men,"  and  diverts  the  storm  from 
his  own  head,  though  not  preventing  it  entirely.  The  Hall 
also  shelters  the  prim  and  precise  Miss  Alethea,  who,  though 
a  severe  censor  of  others,  is  none  the  less  staging  a  sub-rosa 
romance  of  her  own,  as  she  hastens  to  explain  when  she  is 
discovered  in  the  act  of  kissing.  The  Squire's  younger 
son,  a  budding  duplicate  of  his  father,  industriously  courts 
his  twelve-year-old  first  cousin,  an  orphan  now  adopted  into 
the  family. 

The  eldest  son  is  the  hero  or  villain  of  the  first  volume  of 
the  book.  Champ  Effingham  is  just  back  from  the  "  grand 
tour"  on  which  he  has  indulged  violently  in  " every  species 
of  dissipation."  He  is  mortally  bored  by  Virginia  and 
everything  in  it,  and  shows  his  contempt  upon  every  occa- 
sion. He  dashes  books  around,  kicks  dogs,  and  deports  him- 
self generally  as  might  be  expected  of  the  lowest  type  of 
eighteenth  century  buck.  It  is  obvious,  though,  that  he  is 
going  to  tame  down  and  marry  Clare  Lee,  his  childhood 
sweetheart.  He  is  a  little  slow,  however,  in  arranging  mat- 
ters, partly  because  of  his  father 's  loud  insistence  upon  the 
carriage  and  partly  because  of  the  obvious  willingness  of 
the  colorless  Clare.  Progress  in  the  affair  is  at  last  being 
made ;  but  soon  a  theatrical  troupe  comes  to  Williamsburg. 
During  a  performance  of  a  play,  Effingham  leaves  the  side 
of  the  mortified  Clare,  mounts  the  stage  and  accosts  Beatrice 
Hallam,  the  beautiful  star  of  the  company.  Rebuffed,  he 
is  the  laughing-stock  of  the  audience.  Borne  on  by  a  care- 
fully self-encouraged  whirlwind  of  rage  and  passion,  he 
determines  to  overcome  the  young  girl,  and  easily  becomes 
intimate  with  Hallam,  her  supposed  father,  who  compels  her 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  43 

to  receive  him.  After  torturing  her  with  his  importunings, 
even  insultingly  offering  to  marry  her,  he  finds  that  force 
is  the  only  resort,  and  carries  her  off  at  night  across  his 
saddle  to  the  James  River,  where  two  hireling  thugs  have 
placed  a  boat  at  his  disposal.  Previously,  however,  Beatrice 
has  been  for  a  sail  on  the  James,  has  had  her  boat  capsized, 
and  has  been  rescused  by  young  Charles  Waters.  The  lat- 
ter— whom  she  has  found  to  be  her  cousin,  the  son  of  the 
brother  of  her  real  father — learns  of  the  abduction,  and 
with  one  helper  pursues  Effingham.  When  the  boats  meet, 
the  rescuers  put  one  of  their  adversaries  out  of  commission, 
but  Effingham  attempts  to  murder  Waters,  who  is  sustain- 
ing the  fainting  girl.  The  reeling  of  the  vessel,  however, 
causes  him  to  miss  his  mark  and  strike  down  his  surviving 
man.  He  then  plunges  his  sword  into  the  breast  of  Waters, 
shoots  Beatrice,  jumps  into  the  river  and  swims  for  the 
shore.  He  hastens  out  of  the  country,  for  he  doubtless 
realizes  that  for  so  dastardly  an  action  even  Mr.  Effingham 
can  not  go  unpunished.  After  long  suffering  Waters  re- 
covers and  marries  Beatrice,  who  has  not  been  quite  so 
badly  hurt  as  he,  but  whose  night's  experience,  added  to  a 
previous  cough,  is  enough  to  forebode  her  subsequent  death 
from  consumption. 

The  second  book  brings  Effiingham  back  to  Virginia.  He 
has  again  been  wallowing  in  the  sties  of  European  citie./, 
and  comes  home  a  grumbling,  vitality-sapped  household 
tyrant.  His  friends  (he  actually  has  them)  are  still  deter- 
mined to  inflict  him  upon  poor,  stupid  Clare  Lee,  and  this 
time  their  generalship  is  successful.  They  cause  him  to 
suspect  that  she  is  being  courted  by  another,  and  at  the 
proper  time  the  little  ever-willing  ewe-lamb  is  fed  to  the 
Minotaur.  So  much  for  Clare  and  Champ  Effingham,  and 
Beatrice  and  Charles  Waters,  who  are  the  central  charac- 
ters of  the  first  volume. 


44  JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

The  Virginia  Comedians  would,  however,  scarcely  be  a 
mid-nineteenth-century  novel  if  it  stopped  at  so  small  an 
amount  of  love  complication.  Miss  Alethea  and  the  jolly 
fox-hunting  Jack  Hamilton,  Lanky  Lugg  and  Donsy  Smith, 
Captain  Ralph  Waters  and  Henrietta  Lee  all  tread  the  path 
of  matrimony.  When  the  two  parts  of  The  Virginia  Come- 
dians were  issued  by  the  G.  W.  Dillingham  Company  as 
separate  novels  they  were  called  Beatrice  Hallam  and  Cap- 
tain Ralph,  respectively.  In  fact,  with  Beatrice  ill  in 
the  mountains  and  with  the  Champ-Clare  affair  so  luke- 
warm, the  courtship  of  Captain  Ralph  and  Henrietta  is 
the  real  life  of  the  second  book.  Lanky  is  Ralph's  servant, 
and  the  wedding  of  the  musical,  good-natured,  honest  but 
not  very  capable  youth  to  the  sweet  daughter  of  the  Will- 
iamsburg factor  is  largely  owing  to  the  good  offices  of  the 
indefatigable  captain. 

Nearly  all  of  Cooke's  novels  belong  to  the  type  in  which 
heredity  and  surroundings,  if  used  at  all,  are  mere  conven- 
tions to  be  juggled  with  at  the  caprice  of  the  author.  There 
is  in  The  Virginia  Comedians  a  contrast  between  the  serious, 
contemplative,  revolution-fomenting  Charles  Waters  and 
his  brother,  the  boisterous  soldier-adventurer,  Ralph.  The 
lily-pale  Clare  is  a  sister  of  Henrietta,  who  is  as  robust, 
aggressive,  and  sprightly  as  need  be.  Ralph  is  quite  below 
Henrietta  in  social  rank,  but  he  stands  on  his  merit,  and  is 
welcomed  by  both  father  and  daughter,  though  not  quite  so 
promptly  by  the  latter.  The  courtship  of  these  lively,  sen- 
sible people  gives  a  sane  tone  to  the  second  book  which, 
however,  is  not  so  dramatic  as  the  first.  Apart  from  the 
main  plot  The  Virginia  Comedians  offers  some  interesting 
digressions  in  the  way  of  comic  scenes  and  sketches  from 
colonial  life.  Tag  as  parson  and  schoolmaster  is  well  con- 
ceived.   Notable  also  are  the  accounts  of  the  governor 's  ball, 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  45 

the  Williamsburg  fair,  and  the  development  of  liberal  senti- 
ment in  politics. 

If  a  prospective  reader  decides  from  the  first  few  pages 
whether  or  not  he  will  go  on  with  a  book,  John  Esten  Cooke 
is  under  a  disadvantage.  The  Virginia  Comedians  is  sup- 
posed to  be  arranged  from  or  based  on  a  manuscript  work 
written  by  a  Mr.  C.  Effingham,  who  refers  to  Champ  as 
his  "respected  ancestor,"  but  is  otherwise  not  identified. 
Cooke  as  editor  begins  with  a  few  pages  supposedly  by  the 
"author  of  the  ms.,"  and  then  explains  that  he  will  sim- 
plify, "give  more  artistic  point  to  certain  passages,"  and 
omit  some  "unnecessary  and  superfluous  portions."  This 
complex  beginning,  which  may  have  been  suggested  to 
Cooke  by  Carlyle's  Sartor  Resartus,  is  likely  to  perplex 
the  casual  reader  and  is  unfortunately  characteristic  of 
many  of  the  author's  books.  But  Cooke  here  plays  up  to 
the  part  admirably.  Few  writers  who  shift  from  one  sup- 
posed character  to  another  are  more  skilful  in  escaping 
a  stylistic  identity.  The  pretended  "author"  begins  one 
passage :  "  *  Have  you  never,  0  friend,  who  now  readest  these 
unworthy  lines,  abandoned  for  a  time  your  city  life,  with 
its  noise  and  bustle,  and  eternal  striving,  and  locking  up 
with  your  ledgers,  or  your  lawbooks,  all  thoughts  of  busi- 
ness, gone  into  that  bright  lowland  which  the  James  flows 
proudly  through,  a  band  of  silver  wavering  across  a  field 
of  emerald  ?...'"  At  the  close  of  this  passage  the  sup- 
posed "editor"  says:  "Thus  far,  the  author  of  the  ms.  in 
that  rhetorical  and  enthusiastic  style  which  everywhere 
characterizes  his  works.  Let  us  descend  from  the  heights 
of  apostrophe  and  declamation  to  the  prose  of  simple  narra- 
tive."   And  he  does  so. 

Aside  from  being  Cooke 's  best  work,  The  Virginia  Come- 
dians is  his  longest — and  the  later  Henry  St.  John  makes 
virtually  the  third  volume  of  a  trilogy.  In  these  novels 


46  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

Cooke  preserves  a  superb  detachment ;  he  rarely  if  at  all  in- 
trudes his  personality.  It  is  hard  even  to  think  of  Champ 
Effingham  without  bitterness,  but  Cooke  had  studied  his 
field  and,  without  apology  or  praise,  presented  his  charac- 
ters as  he  conceived  them  to  have  existed.  In  this  respect 
his  work  is  on  a  plane  with  Tom  Jones  and  Vanity  Fair, 
and  such  an  achievement  is  an  artistic  triumph  for  a  writer 
who  found  The  Wide,  Wide  World  "one  of  the  most  de- 
lightful of  books,"  and  was  soon  to  write  a  novel  of  this 
once  popular  type. 

From  its  very  appearance  in  the  year  of  its  completion 
The  Virginia  Comedians  was  favorably  received,  flattering 
reviews  appearing  in  the  Charleston,  Richmond,  and  New 
York  papers,  and  in  Harper's  Magazine.  In  "  Virginia, ' ' 
a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  poem,  delivered  at  William  and  Mary 
College  on  July  3,  1856,  Thompson  paid  a  graceful  tribute 
to  its  vivid  recreation  of  the  colonial  past.  The  fame  of 
the  novel  was  such  that  it  was  dramatized  by  C.  W.  Tay- 
leure  and  presented  at  the  Richmond  Theatre,  Richmond, 
on  April  29,  1857.  Joseph  Jefferson,  almost  on  the  thresh- 
old of  his  great  fame,  was  stage  manager  and  played  the 
part  of  Lanky  Lugg,  the  role  best  suited  to  his  talents.  * '  In 
consequence  of  the  extreme  length  of  this  great  play  no 
other  piece  can  be  presented. ' '  So  reads  the  program  from 
which  it  is  learned  that  Patrick  Henry — who  in  the  book 
is  unrevealed  by  name  until  the  end — was  made  into  the 
star  part  and  was  played  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Briggs.  The  play 
was  shortly  thereafter  presented  at  the  Holliday  Street 
Theatre,  Baltimore,  the  book  title  having  been  discarded  in 
favor  of  ' '  Freedom 's  Dawn,  or  the  Man  in  the  Red  Cloak. ' ' 
In  a  Baltimore  announcement  Tayleure  referred  to  the 
play's  "marked  favor  of  reception"  in  Richmond;  but  it 
seems  never  to  have  been  revived.  It  was  Cooke's  only  work 
to  appear  on  the  professional  stage.    His  novels  have  far 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  47 

too  many  characters,  too  much  sweep  and  pageantry,  for 
successful  condensation  in  a  three-hour  talking  piece.  If 
the  cinema  had  existed  in  his  time  he  might  have  won  fame 
and  fortune  as  a  scenario  writer.  His  crises  are  normally 
brought  about  by  accidents,  runaways,  or  rescues  from 
drowning,  rather  than  by  the  subtleties  of  conversation  or 
the  development  of  a  mental  attitude.  In  their  shift  back 
and  forth  from  public  events  to  the  fortunes  of  a  set  of 
lovers,  Cooke's  best  books  before  and  after  the  war  are  of 
the  same  mold  as  the  motion  picture,  The  Birth  of  a  Nation. 
During  his  hard  work  on  The  Virginia  Comedians  Cooke 
had  thought  frequently  of  joining  the  church.  He  was  by 
nature  of  a  religious  turn  of  mind;  and,  on  the  death  of 
his  mother  and  several  times  thereafter,  had  received  letters 
from  relatives  urging  him  to  take  the  step.  Cooke's  father 
was  not  a  member  of  the  church;  his  mother  had  been  an 
Episcopalian,  and  to  her  church  he  turned.  The  event  is 
beautifully  commemorated  in  his  diary:  "Last  Sunday — 
March  5 — I  joined  St.  James's  Church.  It  is  the  greatest 
event  of  my  life  and  I  devoutly  thank  God  for  having 
changed  my  heart  and  made  me  see  the  sublime  light  of 
heaven.  Henceforth,  I  feel,  the  world  has  no  trial  too  hard 
for  endurance — death  no  sting.  ...  A  feeling  of  perfect 
peace  follows  and  accompanies  me — life  spreading  before 
me  like  a  boundless  horizon  of  sunshine.  .  .  .  Singular! 
I  was  just  finishing  the  Ya.  Comedians  and  on  Saturday 
morning  rose  with  my  head  full  of  the  revision.  Then 
commenced  the  struggle  whether  I  should  go  on  with  it  or 
write  at  once  to  Mr.  Cummins  to  ask  an  interview.  The 
hand  of  God  is  just  as  plain  to  me  in  the  whole  matter  as 
that  sunshine  yonder.  I  wrote :  that  I  wished  to  see  him — 
thought  of  joining  the  church,  doubted  my  fitness.  He 
would  be  most  pleased  to  see  me.  I  went:  had  an  hour's 
talk — he  had  never  seen  a  state  of  feeling  which  delighted 


48  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

him  more  .  .  .  tomorrow  was  communion!  There  it  was: 
had  I  delayed  to  this  week  I  should  not  now  have  been 
a  member  of  the  church.  .  .  .  All  my  friends  are  surprised 
and  delighted — Buck  I  think  much  impressed.  Would  to 
God  Pa,  and  he  and  all  would  be  made  to  think  by  it.  My 
life  has  only  begun — the  world  opened.  My  heart  and  in- 
tellect take  a  new  glory,  and  I  shall  be  a  celebrated  man. 
.  .  .  One  thing  comes  to  my  mind  often.  .  .  .  My  blessed, 
sainted  mother  who  placed  her  hand  on  my  head  as  she  was 
dying  and  blessed  me — whose  last  prayer  I  doubt  not  was 
for  her  children — Mother,  I  have  taken  one  step  toward 
you.',  Letters,  journals,  and  his  books  testify  to  the  never- 
waning  quality  of  Cooke's  Christian  faith.  The  step  here 
recorded  colored  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Thomas  Jefferson  had  written  the  statute  of  Virginia  for 
religious  freedom  which  struck  a  staggering  blow  at  the 
Episcopal  church ;  but  this  fact  did  not  prevent  Cooke  from 
finding  in  the  early  life  of  the  great  statesman  the  inspira- 
tion for  his  next  literary  venture.  Almost  immediately 
upon  finishing  The  Virginia  Comedians  Cooke  began,  using 
the  same  locality  and  the  same  period  of  time,  to  fashion  a 
slender  romance  around  certain  letters  and  other  accounts 
of  Thomas  Jefferson's  sojourn  at  William  and  Mary  Col- 
lege. He  said  of  The  Youth  of  Jefferson  that  it  was  "writ- 
ten as  a  relaxation"  from  "the  exhausting  toil"  which  at- 
tended the  composition  of  the  preceding  work;  and  it  is 
neither  very  wide  in  scope  nor  very  ambitious.  The  Vir- 
ginia Comedians  and  Henry  St.  John  together  constitute 
an  epic  of  late  Colonial  Virginia.  With  reference  to  these 
works  the  brief  Youth  of  Jefferson  is,  as  it  were,  an  ex- 
panded interlude,  a  relation  borne  later  by  Hilt  to  Hilt  to 
Surry  of  Eagle's-Nest  and  its  sequel,  Mohun.  As  in  the 
case  of  so  many  of  Cooke's  books,  the  title  was  hard  to 
choose.    Crooks  and  Shepherds  yielded  place  to  Arcadians, 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  49 

under  which  name  the  manuscript  was  sent  to  Redfield  on 
May  19.  It  appeared,  however,  as  The  Youth  of  Jefferson; 
or  a  Chronicle  of  College  Scrapes  at  Williamsburg,  in  Vir- 
ginia, A.D.,  1764.  On  a  visit  to  New  York,  Cooke  engaged 
a  bookseller  in  conversation  with  regard  to  the  book  which 
was  displayed  for  sale.  The  incognito  author  was  much 
amused  at  the  almost  angry  insistence  that  the  work  was 
an  authoritative  history.  Aside  from  the  three  books  pub- 
lished and  the  three  he  wrote,  the  year  1854  found  Cooke 
active  in  other  ways.  "I  am  for  the  first  time  very  busy 
regularly,"  he  wrote.  "For  a  week  or  so  I  have  been  at- 
tending to  Middleton  's  Case,  and  editing  the  Messenger  and 
ditto  the  Express,  and  writing  the  Arcadians.  Very  tire- 
some, but  it  will  advantage  me. ' ' 

The  Youth  of  Jefferson  affords  pleasant  reading  for 
those  Who  like  a  quaintly  imagined  reconstruction  of  the 
past  and  are  not  averse  to  having  historical  personages  doc- 
tored to  suit  a  novelist's  purposes.  The  future  author  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  in  love  with  Rebecca 
Burwell.  Miss  Burwell,  however,  married  Jacqueline  Am- 
bler, and  Jefferson  later  married  Martha  Wayles,  the  widow 
of  Bathurst  Skelton.  So  much  for  the  actual  historical  basis 
of  the  romance.  In  Cooke's  handling  of  the  Jefferson- 
Ambler-Burwell  triangle,  the  embryo  sage  of  Monticello 
appears  as  Sir  Asinus,  his  rival  as  Jacques,  and  the  lady 
as  Belle-bouche  or  Belinda,  a  name  which  Jefferson  ac- 
tually employed  in  referring  to  Miss  Burwell.  Cooke  makes 
use  of  non-historical  characters  as  well  as  historical.  He 
describes  the  governor's  surroundings  at  Williamsburg,  the 
life  of  the  college,  and  the  plantation  life  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. Of  course  these  accounts  are  not  definitely  authentic, 
although  an  atmosphere  of  essential  truth  pervades  the 
work.  "If  its  grotesque  incidents  beguile  an  otherwise 
weary  hour  with  innocent  laughter,  the  writer's  ambition 


50  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

will  have  been  fully  gratified,"  says  the  author  in  his  six- 
line  preface.  Cooke's  humor  is  never  of  the  broad,  racy 
kind  which  is  often  regarded  as  typical  of  the  United 
States;  it  is  delicate,  playful,  fanciful,  at  most  provocative 
of  a  smile.  A  short  quotation  will  illustrate  the  tone  of 
the  composition: 

"  'Please  hand  me  the  music/  said  Belle-bouche ;  'there  in  the 
scarlet  binding.' 

"Jacques  started  and  obeyed.  As  she  received  it  the  young  girl's 
hand  touched  his  own  and  he  uttered  a  sigh  which  might  have  melted 
rocks.  The  reason  was,  that  Jacques  was  in  love;  we  state  the  fact, 
though  it  has  probably  appeared  before. 

"Belle-bouche's  voice  was  like  liquid  moonlight  and  melodious 
flowers.  Its  melting  involutions  and  expiring  cadences  unwound 
themselves  and  floated  from  her  lips  like  satin  ribbon  gradually 
drawn  out." 

Cooke  followed  fast  upon  the  heels  of  The  Youth  of 
Jefferson  with  The  Last  of  the  Foresters:  or,  Humors  on 
the  Border;  a  story  of  the  Old  Virginia  Frontier,  the  third 
novel  to  be  written  in  1854.  He  "commenced  in  June  or 
July,  stopped  at  the  5  or  600th  page  about  Aug.  15"  to  go 
to  the  Valley  for  a  six  weeks'  vacation,  returned  about  the 
first  of  October,  and  finished  the  work  on  the  seventeenth. 
The  manuscript  was  at  first  called  The  History  of  Verty: 
his  performances  and  pedigree.  The  Harpers  wisely  re- 
fused it;  but  Derby  and  Jackson  accepted  it,  and  adver- 
tised it  as  Redbud's  Necklace.  Either  of  these  titles  would 
have  given  a  suggestion  of  the  nature  of  the  book ;  but  the 
author  and  the  publisher  must  have  felt  that  the  contents 
would  not  bear  divulging,  for  it  appeared  as  The  Last  of  the 
Foresters,  a  title  scarcely  applicable,  since  of  the  numerous 
characters  the  only  ones  who  could  possibly  be  called  fores- 
ters are  an  old  Indian  woman  who  figures  but  slightly, 
and  her  supposed  son,  the  hero,  whose  only  "forester" 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  51 

attributes  are  an  excessive  imperviousness  to  knowledge 
and  an  ability  to  shoot  well.  The  unfitness  of  the  eleventh 
hour  title  is  also  patent  in  the  light  of  historical  fact.  The 
scene  is  laid  in  Colonial  times,  and  foresters  surely  were 
not  by  that  time  reduced  in  number  to  one  mild  specimen. 

The  book  is  a  rather  unsatisfactory  performance.  Al- 
though it  is  far  better  than  Leather  Stocking  and  Silk  in 
plot  construction,  and  gives  some  passably  good  pictures 
of  Valley  life,  it  is  rendered  disagreeable  by  a  very  maudlin 
love  affair.  Cooke  seems  to  have  thought,  for  the  time  at 
least,  that  in  composing  the  new  work  he  was  making  great 
progress  stylistically;  he  referred  to  the  chapter  entitled 
"The  Rose  of  Glengary"  as  his  "crack  writing.,,  The 
style  of  the  book  is  characteristic  of  the  author's  more 
subjective  vein  and  is  commendable;  but  its  gracefulness 
and  limpidity  are  not  able  to  counteract  the  effect  of  an  un- 
ending redundancy.  Verty,  to  whom  the  epithet  "dreamy" 
is  applied  literally  scores  of  times,  is  in  love  with  Squire 
Summers 's  daughter,  Redbud,  a  heroine  of  the  type  of  Clare 
Lee.  Redbud — who  is  soft,  sweet,  tender,  and  blushing 
throughout — falls  into  a  stream,  as  do  so  many  of  Cooke's 
ladies,  and  takes  a  terrible  cold.  She  is  immature  as  well 
as  delicate,  for  she  is  only  about  sixteen  and  a  half  years 
Old  when  the  novel  closes.  Needless  to  say  the  Squire's 
daughter  cannot  marry  the  fatherless  son  of  the  queer  In- 
dian woman;  consequently,  by  the  frequent  transfer  of  a 
necklace  and  by  a  birthmark,  Verty  is  discovered  to  be  the 
son  of  a  lawyer  who  has  often  been  sobbing  before  a  por- 
trait of  his  little  child  Anna,  supposedly  a  girl.  How? 
Why,  Arthur  Anne  Rushton  is  Verty 's  true  designation, 
and,  as  a  baby,  he  was  called  by  a  variant  of  his  middle 
name! 

Throughout  The  Last  of  the  Foresters  Cooke  revels  in 
the  fine  autumn  scenery  of  the  Valley,  "the  loveliness  of 


52  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

the  fair  fields,"  "the  morning  splendors  and  magnificent 
sunsets."  "It  is  in  the  middle  of  these  scenes  that  he  has 
endeavored  to  place  a  young  hunter — a  child  of  the  woods — 
and  to  show  how  his  wild  nature  was  impressed  by  the  new 
life  and  advancing  civilization  around  him.  The  process 
of  his  mental  development  is  the  chief  aim  of  the  book." 
Verty's  progress  is  disappointing.  He  changes  his  clothes 
and  secures  the  undesired  affection  of  a  spinster  boarding- 
school  mistress,  but  the  Cooperesque  "anan,"  by  which  he 
requests  a  monosyllabic  version  of  an  uncomprehended  sen- 
tence, is  still  used  on  page  393  of  a  book  of  419  pages. 
Nothing  complimentary  can  be  said  of  the  central  romance, 
but  the  Ashley-Fanny,  Jinks-Sallianna,  Round  jacket-La- 
vinia  approaches  and  understandings  are  by  no  means  dis- 
agreeable. They  save  the  novel  from  being  a  welter  of 
insipid  sentimentalism.  Modern  writers  have  brought  in 
with  the  strong  man  a  strong  woman,  who  harks  back  phys- 
ically to  the  vigorous  Griselda,  but  Cooke  always  shared 
the  medieval-born  admiration  of  the  frail  woman.  Could 
the  girl  who  caught  cold  at  a  mere  foot-wetting  really  have 
been  so  attractive?  Why  should  not  Mrs.  O'Calligan, 
"young  and  handsome,  strong  and  healthy,"  have  been 
given  at  least  a  chance  of  being  a  subsidiary  heroine  1  As 
the  third  book  written  in  a  very  busy  year,  The  Last  of  the 
Foresters  was  probably  an  indiscretion  of  a  tired  author 
who  was  never  at  all  capable  of  self-criticism,  and  whose 
friends  were  in  this  respect  worse  than  useless  since  they 
would  praise  anything  he  showed  them.  As  a  motto  for 
the  novel,  Cooke  chose  some  lines  from  A  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream.  "This  weak  and  idle  theme  .  .  .  gentles, 
do  not  reprehend,"  he  asks.  Surely  the  kindest  criticism 
applicable  to  The  Last  of  the  Foresters  would  be  that  made 
by  the  Hartford  Christian  Secretary  of  Simms's  pseudony- 
mous  Vasconselos,   a   criticism   which   Redfield   artlessly 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  53 

printed  in  an  advertisement  of  the  book:  "to  such  as  are 
fond  of  this  order  of  literature,  it  will  be  found  intensely 
interesting. '  * 

As  has  been  shown  in  the  case  of  The  Knight  of  Espalion, 
Evan  of  Foix,  and  Fairfax,  the  order  of  publication  of 
Cooke's  works  often  differed  from  that  of  their  composi- 
tion. In  the  Spring  of  1855  he  wrote  a  book  called  Ellie, 
which  was  promptly  accepted  by  the  Eichmond  publisher, 
A.  Morris.  Cooke  then  went  on  a  visit  to  Amelia  County 
and  upon  his  return  to  Richmond  was  told  by  Morris  that 
Derby  and  Jackson  were  about  to  bring  out  ahead  of  The 
Last  of  the  Foresters  a  work  which  had  been  accepted  later. 
The  author  became  angry  and  wrote  at  once  demanding  the 
return  of  his  manuscript.  Derby  sent  it  back.  ' '  His  note, ' ' 
says  Cooke,  "was  that  of  a  gentleman  and  I  was  horrified 
at  what  I  had  so  hastily  done. "  To  a  note  of  apology  Derby 
replied  that,  while  he  might  yet  bring  out  the  book  when 
times  improved,  he  was  perfectly  willing  for  the  author  to 
be  on  the  lookout  for  another  publisher.  The  Last  of  the 
Foresters  appeared  in  a  very  attractive  form  in  1856  under 
the  Derby  and  Jackson  imprint,  but  the  author's  ill-advised 
impulsiveness  gave  the  later-written  Ellie  a  priority  in  pub- 
lication. 

On  the  title-page  of  Ellie:  or,  the  Human  Comedy,  John 
Esten  Cooke  is  described  as  ' '  author  of '  The  Virginia  Come- 
dians,' 'Leather  Stocking  and  Silk,'  'The  Youth  of  Jeffer- 
son,' 'Peony,'  etc."  "Peony,"  here  included  with  his  three 
books,  was  the  first  Messenger  article  for  which  the  author 
was  paid;  it  was  a  purpose  story  which  appeared  in  the 
May  number  of  1852.  Its  full  title  was  "Peony:  a  Tale  for 
the  Times.  Addressed  to  the  Friends  and  Opponents  of 
Free  Schools. ' '  The  name  of  the  story  is  taken  from  Peony, 
a  child  who  comes  "down  from  the  Blue  Ridge  merrily 
singing, ' '  but  is  ragged,  dirty,  and  ignorant,  and  lives  amid 


54  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

squalid  surroundings  with  a  drunken  father.  Presently 
everything  is  shown  in  a  new  light:  "And  Peony  had 
caused  this  change  throughout!  Undoubtedly  she  had! 
She  had  lent  an  attentive  ear  to  the  Master's  directions 
(that  worthy  master  who  saw  all),  and  gradually  the  place 
became  changed.  The  house  was  neat :  the  ground  annexed 
to  it  was  better  tilled:  the  father  had  given  up  his  bottle 
gradually,  and  at  last  wholly:  a  newspaper,  borrowed  by 
Peony,  might  often  be  seen  upon  the  rude  but  neat  pine 
table,  or  in  Peony's  hands  at  evening,  when  all — grouped 
around  her — listened.  The  whole  was  changed,  and  Peony 
had  done  all — a  little  child  but  strong  in  faith  and  hope. 
.  .  .  Peony  changed  all— but  the  FREE  SCHOOL  changed, 
in  all  things,  Peony.  They  were  two  different  persons,  were 
they  not — the  Peony  who  shook  with  mirth  at  a  little  ani- 
mal's suffering,  and  begged  in  beggar  garb  upon  the  high- 
way, and  that  Peony  who,  snatched  from  IGNORANCE 
and  vice,  taught  her  old  father  there  in  the  glad  morning 
light?" 

"Peony"  is  a  piece  of  social  propaganda  which  probably 
was  the  germ  of  Elite.  Cooke  was  profoundly  grieved  by 
his  father's  death  which  occurred  on  December  15,  1854; 
and  his  sorrow,  together  with  his  religious  awakening  earlier 
in  the  year,  doubtless  prompted  a  weighing  of  values,  a 
search  for  the  why  of  poverty,  and  a  sounding  of  the  shal- 
lowness of  the  so-called  genteel  life  about  him.  Elite  is  in 
essence  a  transcript  of  Richmond1  life  in  the  mid-fifties; 
but  Cooke  expressly  states  that,  in  drawing  his  characters, 
he  had  no  real  persons  in  mind.  For  the  first  time  he  chose 
many  of  his  personages  from  a  sordid  milieu.    ' '  Why  should 

i  Cooke  does  not  localize  his  story,  but  references  to  the  river  south 
of  the  city,  etc.,  indicate  that  he  had  Richmond  in  mind  as  the  scene 
of  his  events.  The  society  which  he  knew  was,  of  course,  Richmond 
society. 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  55 

our  attention  be  confined  to  the  beautiful  flowers,  and  the 
noble  and  straight  trees,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  weeds  and 
stunted  undergrowth?  All  is  human,  and  why  not  look 
at  them,  and  weigh  them?"  Nevertheless,  Cooke  felt  a 
certain  hesitation  in  depicting  low  types,  and  saw  fit  to  ex- 
plain in  his  " Introductory' '  that  each  of  his  evil  characters 
was  neutralized  by  a  good  one. 

The  576  pages  of  Ellie  were  reeled  off  between  March  5 
and  April  6.  " Ellie  will  create  a  great  talk,"  thought 
the  author,  but  he  was  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  Last 
of  the  Foresters  retained  suggestions  of  The  Virginia  Come- 
dians.  The  new  book  was,  on  the  contrary,  completely  of 
the  mid-nineteenth  century  type  which  depicts  the  patiently 
endured  sorrow  of  penniless  Christian  childhood.  Ellie  is 
hardly  notable  in  any  respect  except  for  the  rapidity  of 
its  composition,  but  it  is  in  one  key,  and  avoids  the  repeti- 
tions and  the  love-drivel  of  The  Last  of  the  Foresters.  The 
titular  heroine  is  a  little  city  waif.  She  and  a  small  brother 
are  brought  to  extreme  poverty  by  the  protracted  illness 
and  death  of  the  adults  of  the  family.  She  receives  kind- 
nesses at  the  hands  of  a  German  grocer  and  a  lovable  old 
colored  woman,  and  is  befriended  by  Sansoucy,  the  genial 
forward-looking  editor  of  the  " Weekly  Mammoth."  With 
Ellie  and  her  friend,  Lucia,  and  the  latter 's  boy  helper  and 
sweetheart,  Wide-awake,  as  foils,  Cooke  reviews  and  satir- 
izes the  frivolous  elements  of  society.  Miss  Incledon  is  a 
selfish,  unprincipled, ' '  fast ' '  young  woman  of  fashion.  Fan- 
tish  is  a  low-minded,  mischief -making  dandy  who  practices 
on  her  gullibility  and  boasts  of  his  familiarity  with  her. 
Even  more  scurrilous  than  he,  is  his  friend  Captain  Tarnish. 
There  is  a  fop,  Heartsease,  and  a  Miss  Gossyp  for  him  to 
marry ;  just  as  a  gracious  Miss  Aurelia  is  provided  for  San- 
soucy. The  latter  and  the  gruff,  good  Dr.  Fossyl — who 
suggests  Rushton,  the  rough  but  kindly  lawyer  in  The  Last 


56  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

of  the  Foresters — are  both  fond  of  moralizing,  and  the  book 
is  replete  with  disquisitions  on  such  mid-century  topics  aa 
the  wrong  of  duelling,  the  immorality  of  the  newly  popu- 
larized waltz,  and  the  doubtful  utility  of  "  tracts  alone  when 
those  for  whom  they  are  intended  suffer  from  want  of 
bread."  Ellie,  in  her  role  of  heroine,  must  of  course  re- 
ceive a  special  dispensation,  and  at  the  end  she  is  awarded 
the  position  of  long-lost  little  sister  of  good  Mr.  Sansoucy. 
In  his  attack  on  certain  social  ills  as  well  as  in  his  depic- 
tion of  Ellie,  Cooke  was  influenced  in  a  general  way  by 
Dickens.  The  novel  may,  in  a  last  analysis,  be  best  de- 
scribed, however,  as  a  very  lengthy  tract — and  an  excellent 
one. 

Cooke's  books  had  up  to  this  time  been  without  pictures, 
but  David  Strother  consented  to  illustrate  Ellie.  He  said 
that,  while  he  followed  his  instructions  closely,  he  could 
have  done  better  if  he  had  had  time  to  read  the  manuscript. 
He  warned  the  author  that  it  would  take  about  six  weeks  to 
have  the  engraving  well  done.  "I  might  have  divided  the 
work  and  had  it  done  sooner,  but  Edmonds  is  the  only  tol- 
erably reliable  cutter  of  faces  and  expression  that  I  know, 
and  he  is  not  above  mediocrity.  Our  American  engravers 
are  no  artists  as  the  French  are,  but  simply  mechanics  and 
very  dull  ones  at  that.  I  have  prepared  the  title  page  for 
printing  in  tints  as  you  ordered. ' '  Cooke  kept  no  account  of 
the  financial  return  from  his  first  few  books,  but  he  recorded 
that  Morris  paid  for  the  illustrations  of  Ellie  and  agreed 
to  give  him  ten  per  cent  on  all  sales. 

During  the  summer  of  1855,  Cooke  apparently  developed 
a  rather  serious  liking  for  a  young  lady  of  Amelia  County. 
In  his  journal  he  had  often  set  down  genial  flippant  ac- 
counts of  his  "flirting,"  his  "playing  second  fiddle  de- 
cidedly," or  his  finding  "one  very  sweet"  girl  in  every 
group.    The  accounts  were  little  more  than  the  record  of 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  57 

a  wholesome  and  chivalric  interest  in  the  young  ladies  of  his 
acquaintance.  After  his  visit  to  Amelia  in  May,  however, 
such  notes  as  he  made  assumed  a  decidedly  different  tone. 
He  now  wrote  often  of  a  prospective  "change"  in  his  life 
and  of  a  coming  "event."  Several  pages  of  his  journal,  in 
the  place  where  the  entries  would  naturally  have  been 
most  pertinent,  have  been  torn  out,  while  on  the  narrow 
stub  in  Cooke's  handwriting  is  the  comment:  "nothing 
on  this."  The  numerous  manuscript  poems  of  this  period 
are  very  amorous.  "Forgotten  who  and  when  it  was,"  says 
a  note  inscribed  beside  one  of  the  stanzas  in  1867,  the  year 
of  the  author's  eventual  marriage.  The  ill-omened  love- 
affair  occupied  Cooke's  mind  for  at  least  three  years.  In 
March,  1857,  he  contemplated  marriage  the  following  sum- 
mer. The  matter  was  the  subject  of  serious  correspondence 
with  his  brothers,  but  the  name  of  the  lady  is  nowhere  men- 
tioned. "I  find  my  affection  decreasing  for  her,  I  fear," 
he  wrote  to  "Sainty"  in  June,  1858.  "Well,  if  she  casts 
it  away,  my  conscience  will  be  clear." 

The  mental  preoccupation  attendant  upon  this  cautiously 
recorded  or  carefully  censored  love-affair  may  have  caused 
Cooke  to  hesitate  to  begin  a  work  requiring  the  steady  ap- 
plication which  he  gave  to  his  novels.  However  this  may 
be,  his  next  book,  Henry  St.  John,  was  not  begun  until 
January,  1856,  and  was  not  in  the  hands  of  the  publishers 
until  early  in  1857.  Meanwhile  he  was  devoting  himself 
assiduously  to  the  production  of  magazine  articles,  and  was 
becoming  a  figure  of  national  importance.  Besides  several 
pieces  in  the  Messenger,  and  such  ephemeral  work  as  he 
was  doing  for  newspapers,  Cooke  in  the  year  1856  had  five 
considerable  prose  articles  in  Putnam's  Monthly  and  four 
in  Harper's.  The  titles  are  interesting:  "In  Memoriam," 
"How  I  Courted  Lulu.  In  Seven  Tableaux,"  "Annie  at 
the  Corner:  The  History  of  a  Heart,"  "News  from  Grass- 


58  JOHN   ESTBN   COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

land.  A  Mountain  Letter  from  John  St.  John,  Esq.,  to  his 
friend  in  Town,"  "John  Randolph:  A  Personal  Sketch," 
"The  Tragedy  of  Hairston,"  "Baby  Bertie's  Christmas," 
1 '  How  I  was  Discarded :  By  a  Married  Man, "  ' '  Fanny  and 
Myself:  Being  the  Recollections  of  an  Elderly  Gentleman." 
A  typical  early  nineteenth  century  fondness  for  anonymity 
and  pseudonymity  is  here  displayed;  of  nine  articles  six 
are  unsigned,  while  the  other  three  purport  to  emanate 
from  three  distinct  sources.  The  varied  titles  show  Cooke's 
wide  range  of  interest,  but  on  close  reading  almost  all  the 
articles  prove  to  be  either  forerunners  or  else  by-products 
of  his  novels  or  histories.  "Baby  Bertie's  Christmas"  is, 
for  instance,  very  closely  akin  to  "Peony"  and  Elite;  and 
John  Randolph  is  the  subject  of  a  chapter  in  Stories  of  the 
Old  Dominion. 

The  novel  which  Cooke  wrote  in  1856  was,  while  in  manu- 
script, successively  referred  to  as  a  "sequel"  to  The  Vir- 
ginia Comedians,  Old  Virginia,  and  Bonny  oel  Vane.  The 
latter  name  was  adopted  for  a  post-bellum  reprint,  but 
the  Harpers  issued  the  book  in  1859  under  the  designedly 
old-fashioned  title,  Henry  St.  John,  Gentleman,  of  "Flower 
of  Hundreds,"  in  the  County  of  Prince  George,  Virginia. 
A  Tale  of  1774- f  75.  In  historic  time  this  sequel  follows 
The  Virginia  Comedians  at  about  a  decade.  Except  for  a 
few  vacancies  caused  by  deaths,  the  characters  of  the  for- 
mer work  are  found  in  the  new  story.  Champ  and  Will 
Effingham,  Captain  Ralph,  Lanky  Lugg,  and  their  wives, 
Mr.  Crow,  Mr.  A.  Z.  Smith,  Parson  Tag,  and  others  are 
glimpsed  in  passing.  One  or  two  personages  from  The 
Youth  of  Jefferson  also  make  a  brief  bow.  The  major  plot 
deals  with  the  love,  estrangement,  reconciliation  and  mar- 
riage of  Bonnybel  Vane,  the  seventeen-year-old  daughter 
of  Colonel  Vane  of  Vanely,  and  Henry  St.  John,  the  young 
master  of  that  famous  old  estate  which  was  later  to  be  the 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  59 

scene  of  Mrs.  Burton  Harrison's  Flower  de  Hundred.  St. 
John  is  a  lieutenant  in  Governor  Dunmore's  guards,  but 
resigns  a  position  which  becomes  intolerable.  He  is  suc- 
ceeded by  Lindon  who  has  squandered  the  greater  part  of 
a  large  estate  and  desires  to  stave  off  creditors  by  securing 
the  prospective  inheritance  of  Colonel  Vane.  To  break  up 
the  correspondence  of  the  lovers,  Lindon  employs  a  Miss 
Carne,  a  seamstress  who  is  a  clever  insinuator  and  a  skilful 
forger.  Miss  Carne  is  successful  in  her  mission,  but  the 
assiduous  Lindon  is  decidedly  unwelcome  when  he  appears 
as  a  substitute  lover,  resuming  a  repulsed  courtship  of 
some  time  agone.  Following  the  tactics  of  Effingham,  he 
kidnaps  Bonny  and  is  in  the  preliminaries  of  a  forced 
marriage  when  a  rescue  is  effected  by  St.  John,  who  has 
been  informed  by  the  unpaid  and  maltreated  Miss  Carne. 
The  primary  romance  is  accompanied  by  the  usual  quota 
of  subsidiary  affairs ;  but  the  love  interest  is  less  dominant 
than  in  the  earlier  books  of  the  trilogy.  "For  the  volume 
has  two  themes,  two  aims :  the  story  of  a  man  and  a  woman ; 
the  history,  also,  of  a  period  in  the  annals  of  a  nation.' ' 
Charles  Waters,  since  the  death  of  Beatrice,  has  been  work- 
ing zealously  for  a  republic.  Pages  are  devoted  to  his 
political  pronouncements.  He  is  no  longer  merely  a  bright 
young  liberal  alertly  interested  in  governmental  topics.  He 
is  represented  as  being  the  brain,  as  Henry  was  the  tongue, 
Jefferson  the  pen,  and  Washington  the  sword  of  the  Revo- 
lution. This  perversion  of  historical  fact  is  one  of  the  chief 
faults  of  a  book  which  is  in  most  respects  a  worthy  sequel 
to  The  Virginia  Comedians.  The  portrayal  of  Dunmore 
and  his  entourage  is  brilliantly  done ;  there  is  true  splendor 
in  the  depiction  of  the  last  stand  of  the  arrogant  alien 
Governor  of  Virginia.  Cooke  on  the  whole  builds  rather 
largely  on  facts,  always  of  course  handling  them  freely,  but 
sometimes  in  too  much  detail,  as  when  he  chronicles  the 


60  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

reaction  of  a  dozen  counties  to  the  governor's  famous  re- 
moval of  the  powder.  History  writing  has  been  placed  upon 
an  entirely  different  plane  since  the  youth  of  Cooke,  who 
in  some  respects  anticipated  the  modern  historian.  Like 
J.  R.  Green  and  later  writers  he  thoroughly  realized  the 
one-sidedness  of  the  traditional  war-recording  chronicle 
which  gave  rise  to  the  proverb  about  the  blessedness  of  the 
nation  without  a  history.  In  the  quasi-author  's  prologue 
he  stated  his  purpose : 

"Where  are  the  men  and  manners  of  the  Revolution,  only  hinted 
at  obscurely  in  what  the  world  calls  histories?  Do  they  exist  for 
us  today  except  as  names  and  traditions?  And  what  does  the  present 
generation  know  of  them? 

"Alas  for  the  historians!  They  tell  us  many  things,  but  so  little! 
They  relate,  with  much  dignity,  how  the  battle  was  fought  and  the 
treaty  made — they  tell  us  the  number  of  the  combatants,  and  spread 
every  protocol  upon  the  page.  But  the  student  of  the  past  asks  for 
more.  Of  the  historian  we  ask  a  picture  of  the  older  day — portraits 
of  the  Virginian  and  his  household.  We  would  know  the  peculiari- 
ties of  character  and  manner  which  marked  a  great  race — the  wor- 
thies of  Virginia.  We  would  live  again,  for  a  time,  beneath  those  fair 
or  storm-convulsed  skies  of  'Old  Virginia';  we  would  take  the  hand 
of  the  honest  old  planter;  we  would  go  into  his  library  and  look 
over  his  shoulder  as  he  reads  the  new  Act  in  the  Virginia  Gazette, 
and  would  not  disdain  to  scan  critically  the  powdered  curls  and 
looped-back  gowns,  the  flounces,  and  furbelows,  and  fancies  of  the 
dames. 

"We  would  see  the  rude  Old-Field  School  on  the  edge  of  the  forest, 
and  listen  to  the  words,  and  watch  the  bright  faces  of  these  children 
who  will  make  hardy  patriots  and  devoted  women." 

In  this  late  Colonial  trilogy — the  two  parts  of  The  Vir- 
ginia Comedians,  and  Henry  St.  John — Cooke  achieved  the 
finest  product  of  his  career.  He  attained  his  difficult  goal. 
He  accomplished  the  imaginative  reconstruction  of  the  life 
of  a  past  period  with  sufficient  charm  and  power  almost  to 
warrant  his  being  called  a  great  social  historian.    No  one 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  61 

has  compressed  better  than  he  into  three  small  paragraphs 
a  summary  of  the  third  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century 
in  Virginia,  a  period  fascinatingly  depicted  in  this  idyllic 
epic  in  prose.  The  quotation  is  from  the  Appleton  (1883) 
edition  of  The  Virginia  Comedians: 

"It  was  the  period  of  the  culmination  of  the  old  social  regime. 
A  splendid  society  had  burst  into  flower,  and  was  enjoying  itself 
in  the  sunshine  and  under  the  blue  skies  of  the  most  beautiful  of 
lands.  The  chill  winds  of  the  Revolution  were  about  to  blow,  but 
no  one  suspected  it.  Life  was  easy,  and  full  of  laughter — of  cordial 
greetings,  grand  assemblies,  and  the  zest  of  existence  which  springs 
from  the  absence  of  care.  Social  intercourse  was  the  joy  of  the 
epoch,  and  crowds  flocked  to  the  race-course,  where  the  good  horses 
were  running  for  the  cup,  or  to  the  cock-fight,  where  the  favorite 
spangles  fought  to  the  death.  The  violins  seemed  to  be  ever  playing 
— at  the  Raleigh  Tavern,  in  Williamsburg  where  young  Jefferson 
'danced  with  Belinda  in  the  Apollo,'  and  was  happy;  or  in  the 
great  manor  houses  of  the  planters  clustering  along  the  lowland 
rivers.  In  town  and  country  life  was  a  pageant.  His  Excellency 
the  royal  Governor  went  in  his  coach-and-six  to  open  the  Burgesses. 
The  youths  in  embroidered  waistcoats  made  love  to  the  little  beauties 
in  curls  and  roses.  The  'Apollo'  rang  with  music,  the  theatre  on 
Gloucester  Street  with  thunders  of  applause;  and  the  houses  of 
the  planters  were  as  full  of  rejoicing.  At  Christmas — at  every 
season,  indeed — the  hospitable  old  'nabob'  entertained  throngs  of 
guests;  and,  if  we  choose  to  go  back  in  fancy,  we  may  see  those 
Virginians  of  the  old  age  amid  their  most  characteristic  surround- 
ings. The  broad  board  is  spread  with  plenty;  the  wood  fires  roar 
in  the  fireplaces;  the  canary  sparkles;  the  wax-lights  flame,  lighting 
up  the  Louis  Quatorze  chairs,  the  old  portraits,  the  curious  hric-d- 
hrac,  and  the  rich  dresses  of  fair  dames  and  gallant  men.  Care 
stands  out  of  the  sunshine  of  this  brilliant  throng,  who  roll  in  their 
chariots,  dance  the  minuet,  exchange  compliments,  and  snatch  the 
charm  of  the  flying  hours  with  no  thought,  one  would  say,  but 
enjoyment,  and  to  make  the  best  of  the  little  life  we  live  below. 

"This  is  what  may  be  seen  on  the  surface  of  society  under  the 
Old  Virginia  regime;  but  that  social  organization  had  reached  a 
stage  when  the  elements  of  disintegration  had  already  begun  their 
work.  A  vague  unrest  pervaded  the  atmosphere,  and  gave  warning 


62  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

of  the  approaching  cataclysm.  Class  distinctions  had  been  immemo- 
rially  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  the  order  of  nature;  but  certain 
curious  and  restive  minds  began  to  ask  if  that  is  just,  and  to  glance 
sidewise  at  the  wealthy  nabob  in  his  fine  coach.  The  English 
Church  was  the  church  of  the  gentry;  it  was  not  the  church  of  the 
people.  The  'New  Light'  ministers,  began  to  talk  about  'sinegogues 
of  Satan'  and  to  tell  the  multitudes,  who  thronged  to  hear  them 
preach  in  the  fields,  that  the  reverend  parsons  were  no  better  than 
they  should  be.  New  ideas  were  on  the  march.  The  spirit  of  change 
was  under  the  calm  surface.  The  political  agitation  soon  to  burst 
forth  was  preceded  by  the  social.  The  hour  was  near  when  the 
merry  violins  were  to  stop  playing;  when  the  'Apollo  room'  at  the 
Kaleigh  would  become  the  meeting-place  of  political  conspirators; 
and  the  Virginians,  waking  from  their  dreams  of  enjoyment,  were 
to  be  confronted  by  the  hard  realities  of  the  new  time. 

"Such  was  the  period  selected  by  the  youthful  writer  of  this 
volume  for  the  picture  he  wished  to  attempt  of  that  former  society. 
When  the  story  opens,  the  worthy  'Virginia  Comedians'  have  pros- 
pered. They  have  gone  away,  but  have  returned  year  after  year,  and 
are  still  playing  at  what  is  now  the  'Old  theatre  near  the  Capitol.' 
The  winter  still  attracts  the  pleasure-loving  Virginians  to  the  vice- 
regal city,  and  throughout  the  theatrical  season,  beginning  in  the 
autumn,  the  playhouse  is  thronged  with  powdered  planters,  beautiful 
dames,  honest  yeomen,  and  indented  servants.  More  than  ever  the 
spirit  of  unrest — social,  political  and  religious — pervades  all  these 
classes.  Revolution  is  already  in  the  air,  and  the  radical  sentiments 
of  young  Waters  and  the  man  in  the  Red  Cloak,  in  this  volume, 
meet  with  thousands  of  sympathizers.  On  the  surface  the  era  is 
tranquil,  but  beneath  is  the  volcano.  Passion  smoulders  under  the 
laughter;  the  homespun  coat  jostles  the  embroidered  costume;  men 
are  demanding  social  equality,  as  they  will  soon  demand  a  republic; 
and  the  splendid  old  regime  is  about  to  vanish  in  the  storm  of  the 
Revolution." 

In  the  years  1858,  1859,  and  1860  Cooke  kept  no  record 
of  any  kind.  This  period  was  perhaps  the  least  happy  of  his 
life.  He  not  only  had  the  grief  of  his  ill-fated  love  affair, 
but  his  spirit  had  been  weighed  down  by  an  almost  endless 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  63 

chain  of  deaths.  Those  of  his  dearest  boyhood  friend,  his 
eldest  brother,  his  mother,  and  his  father  have  been  recorded. 
He  had  been  especially  pained  by  the  death  of  his  father 
who  had  not  been  a  church  member.  In  1858,  however,  in 
writing  to  "Sainty"  a  congratulation  upon  an  expressed 
determination  to  become  a  Christian,  Cooke,  having  exam- 
ined his  father's  effects,  was  able  to  say:  "I  found  among 
his  papers  the  most  irresistible  evidence  that  he  had  long 
been  a  true  believer  in  Christ.  And  our  dear  mother  I 
know  has,  long  since,  been  reunited  to  him — she  waits  for 
us.  I  do  not  believe  that  God  will  let  one  of  us  fail. ' '  The 
grief  assuaged  by  the  thought  here  expressed  must  soon 
have  descended  again  upon  Cooke  with  renewed  fury,  for 
in  little  more  than  a  year  "Sainty"  himself — beloved  as 
the  youngest  brother  and  believed  to  be  the  most  talented 
member  of  the  family — was  dead,  and  Henry  soon  followed 
him  to  the  grave. 

The  best  picture  of  the  young  novelist  in  1858-59  is  given 
by  an  admiring  friend,  George  Cary  Eggleston,  in  his 
Recollections  of  a  Varied  Life.  After  discussing  "  George 
Prince  Regent ' '  James  and  John  Reuben  Thompson,  Eggle- 
ston refers  to  Cooke  as  ''chief  among  the  literary  men  of 
Richmond"  and  continues: 

"The  matter  of  getting  a  living  was  a  difficult  one  to  him  then, 
for  the  reason  that  with  a  pride  of  race  which  some  might  think 
quixotic,  he  had  burdened  his  young  life  with  heavy  obligations  not 
his  own.  His  father  had  died  leaving  debts  that  his  estate  could 
not  pay.  As  the  younger  man  got  nothing  by  inheritance,  except 
the  traditions  of  honor  that  belonged  to  his  race,  he  was  under  no 
kind  of  obligation  with  respect  to  those  debts.  But  with  a  chivalric 
loyalty  such  as  few  men  have  ever  shown,  John  Esten  Cooke  made 
his  dead  father's  debts  his  own  and  little  by  little  discharged  them 
with  the  earnings  of  a  toilsome  literary  activity. 

"His  pride  was  so  sensitive  that  he  would  accept  no  help  in  this, 
though  friends  earnestly  pressed  loans  upon  him  when  he  had  a 
payment  to  meet  and  his  purse  was  well-nigh  empty.    At  such  times 


64  JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

he  sometimes  made  his  dinner  on  crackers  and  tea  for  many  days 
together,  although  he  knew  he  would  be  a  more  than  welcome  guest 
at  the  lavish  tables  of  his  many  friends  in  Richmond.  It  was  a 
point  of  honor  with  him  never  to  accept  a  dinner  or  other  invitation 
when   he   was   financially   unable   to   dine   abundantly   at   his    own 


During  this  period  of  grief,  hard  work,  and  high  idealism 
Cooke  was,  as  he  recalled  years  later,  doing  * '  editorial  mat- 
ter" which  "amounted  to  very  considerable"  in  the  "Mes- 
senger, Express,  Index,  Whig,  etc.,  etc."  He  wrote  a 
number  of  articles  for  Appleton's  Cyclopaedia,  and  con- 
tinued his  contributions  to  magazines.  For  the  latter  he 
seems  at  this  time  to  have  been  paid  a  normal  maximum  of 
seventy-five  dollars  per  article.  Such  work  afforded  money 
certainly  more  promptly,  and  probably  in  larger  amounts 
than  could  be  secured  from  the  royalties  of  a  slow-selling 
book.  Whether  Cooke  desired  the  cash  in  hand  which  a  serial 
was  supposed  to  fetch,  or  whether,  more  probably,  he  sought 
a  publisher  in  vain,  the  longer  stories  written  in  the  years 
1857-1860  all  appeared  as  serials.  Estcourt  "was  written 
in  1857  at  the  request  of  Paul  Hayne  and  appeared  in 
Russell's  Magazine."  "I  have  always  liked  it,"  Cooke 
wrote  later,  "Was  paid  $50,  leaving  $250  due — which  Paul 
offered  me  his  poor  little  copyright  on  Avolio  for — and  I 
1  indignantly  refused. '  "  x  Of  the  composition  of  Falkland 
and  The  Shadow  on  the  Wall,  Cooke  in  his  post-bellum 
literary  reminiscences  says  nothing  except  that  they  ap- 
peared in  small-town  newspapers,  and  served,  both  of 
them,  as  a  basis  for  a  later  novel,  Dr.  Vandyke.  These 
stories  were  probably  written  some  time  in  1858  or  1859, 
for  another  work,  The  Pride  of  Falling  Water,  occupied 

i  In  a  letter  to  Cooke,  Hayne  expressed  bitter  regret  at  this  in- 
ability to  pay. 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  65 

Cooke  in  the  spring  of  1860.  Crushed  by  grief,  he  felt 
" exceedingly  weak  and  sick,"  and  only  his  "word  pledged 
to  the  Field  and  Fireside  editor"  drove  him  "to  the  pen." 
For  this  serial  he  received  three  hundred  dollars,  and  a  sim- 
ilar sum  was  brought  by  a  "remoulded"  version  which  he 
published  in  the  St.  Louis  Home  Journal  in  1872-73  as 
Paul,  the  Hunter. 

In  the  large  amount  of  prose  which  Cooke  produced  in 
the  closing  fifties  his  work  for  Appleton's  New  American 
Cyclopaedia  is  perhaps  most  worthy  of  note.  The  encyclo- 
pedia was  edited  jointly  by  George  Ripley  and  Charles  A. 
Dana,  both  of  whom  wrote  often  to  Cooke.  "I  am,"  said 
Ripley  in  one  of  his  letters,  ' '  perfectly  aware  of  the  onerous 
nature  of  the  task;  but  with  the  large  circulation  of  the 
N.  A.  C.  and  the  national  character,  which  we  mean  to  give  it 
a  tout  prix,  I  am  sure  you  will  find  some  relish  in  increase 
of  fame,  and  in  your  close  identification  with  the  first  at- 
tempt, on  so  large  a  scale,  to  do  ample  honor  to  the  illus- 
trious sons  of  your  ancestral  soil. ' '  After  a  few  of  Cooke 's 
contributions  had  been  received,  Ripley  wrote  as  follows: 
1 '  We  are  highly  gratified  with  the  spirit,  ability,  and  artistic 
grace  of  your  biographical  sketches,  and  earnestly  hope  that 
you  will  be  able  to  furnish  us  with  many  other  of  the 
eminent  statesman  [sic]  of  Virginia.  Should  also  any 
name,  outside  that  category,  in  American  or  English  Litera- 
ture occur  to  you  as  a  favorite  subject,  we  shall  be  happy 
to  receive  it  from  your  pen."  Among  Cooke's  numerous 
articles  were  sketches  of  Madison,  Monroe,  and  Marshall, 
and  of  four  members  of  the  Lee  family.  The  invitation 
to  write  the  paper  on  Irving  was  a  very  particular  compli- 
ment to  Cooke's  tact  as  well  as  his  ability,  for  Irving  was 
not  only  still  alive  but,  because  of  his  distinguished  public 
service  and  his  priority  to  the  great  New  England  writers, 


66  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

was  an  exceedingly  lofty  figure.  "Admirable"  is  the  word 
Dana  applied  to  Cooke's  "Irving."  Cooke  contributed  a 
long  article  on  Jefferson  which  Bancroft,  who  saw  it  in 
manuscript,  described  to  Ripley  as  "  a  masterly  production, 
showing  very  accurate  knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  open 
to  but  few  criticisms."  "It  is  a  matter  of  great  impor- 
tance," Dana  had  said,  "to  present  the  facts,  and  all  the 
facts,  of  his  career  in  a  manner  which  no  party,  either 
Democrats  or  Federalists,  of  old,  or  Democrats  and  Repub- 
licans of  our  day,  can  impugn. ' '  Cooke  succeeded  in  doing 
this,  but  his  paper  is  open  to  attack  on  the  ground  of  faulty 
proportion.  There  is  no  account  at  all  of  Jefferson's  later 
years ;  no  mention  of  the  founding  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, a  work  which  he  commemorated  in  his  epitaph  as  one 
of  the  three  great  achievements  of  his  life. 

Throughout  his  career  Cooke  wrote  poetry,  and  his  poems 
attracted  some  attention.  He  was  frequently  referred  to 
as  a  poet  rather  than  a  novelist.  His  verse  was  published 
in  Harper's,  he  was  included  in  the  contemporary  antholo- 
gies, and  had  been  asked  by  a  New  York  publishing  house 
to  bring  out,  with  Thompson  as  his  collaborator,  The  Poets 
and  Poetry  of  the  South,  a  work  which  was  well  under  way 
when  the  war  interrupted  it,  but  was  never  completed.  These 
facts  would  seem  to  indicate  that  Cooke  had  considerable 
poetic  ability,  but  such  was  hardly  the  case.  The  mid- 
century  was  not  over-critical;  a  wholesome  theme  was 
nearly  all  that  was  demanded.  Cooke 's  rapidity  of  compo- 
sition was  responsible  for  his  chief  shortcomings.  His 
poems  not  only  frequently  lack  the  fine  finish  of  perfection, 
but  are  sometimes  faulty  in  rime  and  meter.  Such  of  them 
as  escape  technical  carelessness  are  mildly  acceptable,  but 
few  exhibit  marked  vigor  or  originality.  "Clouds,"  sug- 
gestive of  Bryant's  "To  a  Water-fowl"  and  Whittier's  later 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD    VIRGINIA  67 

1  *  The  Eternal  Goodness, ' '  shows  Cooke 's  faults  and  some  of 
the  beauties  which  the  faults  obscure : 

CLOUDS 

I  know  not  whither  past  the  crimson  zone 
Of  evening  sail  those  ships  of  snow  and  gold — 
The  beauteous  clouds  that  seem  to  hover  and  fold 

Their  wings — like  birds  that  having  all  day  flown 

Against  the  blue  sky,  now  at  set  of  sun 
Play  for  a  moment  gayly  on  their  soft 
And  burnished  pinions  wide:  then  from  aloft 

Sink  down  below  the  horizon  and  are  gone! 

I  know  not  where  they  fold  their  shining  wings 
In  very  truth;  nor  what  far  happy  land 
They  come  together  in — a  radiant  band, 

The  brightest,  purest,  of  all  earthly  things! 

But  well  I  know  that  land  lies  broad  and  fair 

Beyond  the  evening:  oh!   that  I  were  there! 

"Kane,"  commemorative  of  the  death  of  the  Arctic  ex- 
plorer, may  owe  something  to  Tennyson's  "Ode  on  the 
Death  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington."  It  is  an  occasional 
poem  of  dignity,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  first  stanza : 

"What  plumes  are  these? 
Sad  mourners  sweeping  like  the  wings  of  night 

Over  the  dark  waves  of  the  wide  Balize 

Where  the  great  waters  sink  into  the  main? 

What  wail  of  pain 
Strikes  the  bent  ear,  what  sombre  sight; 

Looms  on  the  waters,  where  the  ocean  breeze 
Ripples  the  sad,  deep  seas?" 

In  "  A  Dream  of  the  Cavaliers, ' '  a  poem,  over  two  hun- 
dred lines  long,  which  appeared  in  Harper's  for  January, 
1861,  Cooke  had  a  subject  well  suited  to  his  talents: 

".  .  .  So  I  pass  to  the  long-gone  summers 

Of  the  unremembered  years, 
And  share  in  the  joys  and  sorrows, 

In  the  April  smiles  and  tears. 


68  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

"With  the  Cavaliers  and  the  maidens, 

In  an  idle  smiling  dream, 
I  wander  away  to  the  forest, 

Or  sail  on  the  rippling  stream: 

"I  hear  as  I  sit  and  ponder 

On  the  trellis'd  porch  of  the  hall, 

The  tinkle  of  fairy  laughter 
From  under  the  oak-trees  tall: 

"And  stroll  with  the  bright-eyed  damsels, 

As  they  list  to  the  flattering  tale 
Told  by  the  gay  young  gallants, 

In  the  moonlight  weird  and  pale: 

"The  Comedy  plays  before  me, 

And  there  on  the  shining  shore, 
With  the  foolish  murmuring  lovers, 

I  live  in  the  days  before!" 

The  end  of  1860  saw  the  close  of  Cooke's  first  phase  as 
a  writer.  He  had  been  self-supporting  and  had  been  of 
financial  aid  to  several  members  of  his  family.  His  reputa- 
tion for  trustworthy  scholarship  was  confirmed  by  his  being 
asked  to  write  for  Appleton's  Cyclopedia.  He  was  upon 
terms  of  friendly  intimacy  with  Duyckinck,  Stedman,  and 
others  of  the  New  York  literati,  and  corresponded  with  still 
others,  including  Halleck  and  Willis.  Irving,  with  whom 
he  spent  a  summer  day  in  1859,  wrote  asking  him  to  come 
again  if  he  could,  as  his  visit  was  very  refreshing.  From 
his  home  at  Fort  Lee  on  the  Palisades,  Thomas  Dunn  Eng- 
lish wrote  often,  and  later  named  a  seedling  dahlia  for  his 
literary  friend  in  the  South.  Children  were  named  for 
Cooke,  and  he  received  letters  from  admirers  whose  "cup 
of  happiness"  he  would  "fill  to  overflowing"  by  a  reply. 
He  was  thanked  in  a  printed  memorandum  for  the  "suit- 
able sublime  and  brilliant"  ritual  he  had  prepared  for  his 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  69 

fraternal  order,  the  Red  Men.  Most  important  of  all,  his 
shorter  articles  were  appearing  in  the  leading  magazines, 
and  his  books  were  being  brought  out  by  the  best  publishing 
houses  in  America.  Few,  if  any,  of  his  contemporaries  had, 
at  the  age  of  thirty,  greater  fame  than  was  enjoyed  by  John 
Esten  Cooke. 

Cooke  also  received  his  share  of  critical  attention,  much 
of  it  laudatory,  but  in  this  regard  he  was  not  unique,  as 
George  W.  Bagby  complains  in  the  Richmond  Whig  for 
August  9, 1858.  Bagby  says  that  all  Virginia  novelists  were 
praised  equally  as  displaying  "  genius  of  no  common 
order,"  and  continues:  "No  wonder  some  of  them  retired 
in  disgust.  No  wonder  that  some  of  them,  emulous  of  the 
speed  of  Dumas  rather  than  the  patience  of  Talfourd  and 
the  assiduity  of  Richter,  agreed  to  write  a  novel  in  twenty 
minutes  by  a  stop-watch.  No  wonder  that  all  of  them  wrote 
carelessly.  No  wonder  that  all  of  them  at  last  benevolently 
wrote  no  more."  The  publication  of  Henry  St.  John  was 
the  occasion  of  another  tirade  in  the  Whig  about  a  year 
later.  Cooke  had  been  mentioned  in  the  previous  article, 
but  the  latter,  although  it  takes  a  passing  fling  at  six 
others,  was  actually  entitled  "Unkind  but  Complete  De- 
struction of  John  Esten  Cooke,  Novelist." 

"I  now  come,"  says  Bagby,  "to  the  most  profuse  and 
abandoned  novelist  of  them  all,  to  wit,  Effingham  Cooke." 
Bagby  examines  the  book  and  is  * '  constrained  to  pronounce 
it  perhaps  the  most  excusable  of  all  his  misdemeanors.  .  .  . 
There  is  a  girl  in  it  who  will  take  all  the  boys,  and  a  young 
man  who  will  take  all  the  girls.  The  pretty  pictures  of 
the  Colonial  times  will  please  the  old  folks.  And  the  thing 
will  take  all  around.  .  .  . 

"Well,  let  it  take.  The  unfortunate  writer  will  need 
all  he  will  make  to  pay  funeral  expenses.  I  am  about  to 
demolish  him.    I  shall  do  so  by  preferring  against  him  two 


70  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

charges,  both  entirely  true,  and  of  so  grave  a  nature  that 
no  man,  and  particularly  no  novelist,  can  live  under  the 
weight  of  them. ' '  The  first  of  these  charges  is  c '  Mr.  Cooke 's 
eyes  are  in  the  back  of  his  head. ' '  After  scoring  the  novel- 
ist vigorously,  Bagby  continues :  * '  I  'm  proud  of  my  grand- 
daddy,  proud  of  the  day  and  the  deeds  of  his  generation; 
but  I  don't  want  to  get  so  plague-taked  proud  of  him  and 
his  times  as  to  undervalue  myself  and  my  times.  The  old 
times  may  have  been  mighty  good,  but  there  are  some  first 
rate  days  and  prime  doings  left.  Therefore  I  desire  that 
Effingham  Cooke  shall  sell  out  his  old  stock,  close  business 
in  the  Behind,  and  set  up  in  the  Now."  The  second  charge 
was:  "Mr.  Cooke's  eyes  are  not  only  in  the  back  of  his 
head,  but  they  are  also  afflicted  with  a  pair  of  rose-colored 
goggles  of  enormous  magnifying  powers."  Bagby  dwells 
again  on  the  glory  of  the  Colonial  era  as  portrayed  by 
Cooke  and  takes  up  in  detail  a  typical  heroine:  "Is  she 
pretty — I  mean  Cooke's  dead  old  young  female?  She  is 
that — prodigiously  pretty.  Is  she  delightful,  merry,  jolly, 
full  of  life  and  fun,  coquettish  yet  true,  skittish  yet  thor- 
oughbred, and  all  that?  She  is — you'd  better  believe  she 
is.  .  .  .  And  I  marvel  much  that  such  a  set  of  homely,  self- 
ish, money-loving  cheats  and  rascals  as  we  are,  should  have 
descended  from  such  remarkably  fine  parents.  No  doubt 
it  is  very  good  noveling,  but  I  swear  it  is  wretched  physi- 
ology." 

Bagby 's  criticism1  prompts  a  general  summary  of  the 
eight  volumes  which  have  been  commented  on  and  which 
formed  the  bulk  of  Cooke's  ante-bellum  work.  All  eight  are 
novels  of  Virginia,  and  they  cover  three  localities  and 
phases  of  the  life  of  the  state.  No  writer  had  yet  dedi- 
cated himself  so  whole-heartedly  to  the  service  of  the  Old 

i  After  the  Civil  War  Bagby  himself  idealized  the  old  South.  See 
his  Old  Virginia  Gentleman. 


NOVELIST    OF    OLD   VIRGINIA  71 

Dominion.  The  four  volumes  dealing  with  Colonial  life 
in  "the  Tidewater  region  are  on  a  distinctly  higher  plane 
than  the  others;  in  them  Cooke  exhibits  a  splendid  detach- 
ment while  he  weaves  into  the  border  romances  and  Ellie 
a  vast  amount  of  personal  idiosyncrasy  and  reminiscence. 
In  discussing  Cooke's  literary  output  one  should  bear  in 
mind  the  general  state  of  the  novel  in  America  in  the  fif- 
ties. Flights  in  the  " grand  style,"  romantic  adventure, 
pathos,  sentiment — these  were  the  ingredients,  and  Cooke 
abused  them  no  more  than  most  of  his  contemporaries.  If 
the  rosebud  maidens  are  said  to  be  superb  and  are  not 
shown  to  be,  one  must  again  blame  the  custom  of  the  pe- 
riod. The  modern  novel  is  much  closer  to  the  drama. 
Cooke  did  not  like  Dickens,  but  he  outdoes  him  in  repeating 
favorite  words  and  phrases.  Wagner 's  mustache  in  Fairfax 
is  referred  to  even  oftener  than  the  " post-office"  mouth  in 
Great  Expectations.  The  marriage  of  first  cousins  was 
much  too  frequently  a  feature  of  upper  class  life  in  Vir- 
ginia, where  the  estates  were  so  scattered  that  the  only  mu- 
tually marriageable  young  persons  were  likely  to  be  rela- 
tives. Nearly  all  Cooke 's  leading  lovers  are  first  cousins,  for 
instance,  Beatrice  and  Charles  in  The  Virginia  Comedians 
and  Bonny  and  St.  John  in  Henry  St.  John.  The  inbreeding 
continues  in  the  second  generation,  when  a  second  generation 
is  portrayed.  Thus  Max  Courtlandt  marries  his  cousin  in 
Leather  Stocking  and  Silk,  and  Max,  Junior,  also  marries 
his  cousin.  Cooke,  who  boasted  that  his  ancestors  had  not 
married  first  cousins,  realized  the  objections  to  such  mar- 
riages, but  never  hinted  at  them  in  his  books. 

Perhaps  the  best  general  comment  on  Cooke's  eight 
years  as  a  writer  was  pronounced  by  William  Gilmore 
Simms  in  a  review  of  Henry  St.  John : 

"Mr.  Cooke  is  in  possession  of  admirable  material  for  art,  resus- 
citating the  ancient  life  of  the  Old  Dominion  in  the  days  of  its  grand 


72  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

and  vigorous  development.  And  we  repeat,  if  true  to  his  own  genius, 
no  one  can  surpass  him  in  the  happy  and  noble  use  of  this  grand 
moral  material.  He  has  done  well,  so  far;  but  his  sinews  must  be 
a  little  more  seasoned  by  the  proper  exercise;  his  mind  more  patient, 
more  deliberate,  more  sensible  of  the  burden  of  the  task,  more  greatly 
stirred  within  him,  by  the  hourly  growing  sense  of  the  value  of  his 
theme;  so  that  he  shall  shape  it  with  proper  care,  with  a  becoming 
purpose,  and  under  a  severer,  sublimer  design." 

There  is  a  special  significance  in  the  fact  that  Henry  St. 
John,  Cooke's  last  book  before  the  Civil  War,  portrayed 
the  quiet  life  of  Colonial  Virginia  with  its  seething  under- 
current which  broke  to  the  surface  as  revolution.  In  quite 
a  parallel  fashion,  the  author  himself  was  playing  a  part 
in  the  last  scene  of  another  phase  of  Southern  society,  a 
scene  in  which  many  of  the  actors  were  wholly  serene  and 
few  realized  the  momentous  conflagration  that  was  having 
its  fuel  prepared  by  the  bitterness  and  obstinacy  of  the 
two  leading  national  factions.  The  presidential  election  of 
1860  served,  however,  to  crystallize  public  sentiment.  It 
made  of  Cooke  an  ardent  secessionist,  and  he  chafed  greatly, 
as  he  recounts  in  his  renewed  diary,  at  Virginia's  delay 
in  following  South  Carolina  along  what  he  considered  to 
be  the  path  of  right  and  honor. 


CHAPTER   III 
THE   CIVIL  WAR— SOLDIER  AND  HISTORIAN 

From  his  unchronicled  three-year  period  of  depression 
Cooke's  recovery  was  sudden.  His  deep  personal  grief  was 
lost  sight  of  in  the  intensity  of  his  feeling  on  national  events. 
He  renewed  his  diary  on  February  18,  1861,  chiefly  to 
record  his  views  on  secession,  the  grave  issue  then  con- 
fronting Virginia : 

"Here  I  sit  in  my  little  room  in  the  'little  wooden  house  festooned 
with  roses,'  near  the  Equestrian  Washington  yonder — just  going  to 
Col.  Fontaine's  to  spend  the  evening  with  Cousins  Kate  and  Mollie, 
my  little  pet  Marie  S.  and  Miss  Ellen  Pollard — here,  in  February 
of  the  year  of  Revolutions — the  same  book  before  me  which  has 
recorded  ever  since  1851  my  errant  career. 

"Here  once  more — the   same,  but  changed! 

"What  shall  I  write?  Where  shall  I  begin  writing?  I  cannot 
think  of  putting  down  these  years.     They  are  dead — I  survive. 

"Yet,  after  all  my  woes,  I  still  retain  at  thirty,  at  least  cheerful- 
ness and  good  spirits.    But  my  light-heartedness  is  gone. 

"The  Convention  is  here;  and  Wise  the  'Old  Roman  Eagle,'  as  Dick 
calls  him,  has  just  excoriated  Stuart  and  Moore.  Success  to  him. 
Take  them  one  by  one,  my  old  Roman,  and  speak  for  the  liberties 
of  Virginia! 

"Overton  was  defeated — Randolph  elected — him  with  whom  I  made 
the  campaign  in  the  'Wise  War.'  We  had  great  times  at  the  City 
Hall  and  Lower  Ward  polls  that  snowy  fourth  of  February;  and 
between  Lewis  Randolph  and  Bob  Wms.  I  nearly  had  occasion  to 
use  my  little  five  shooter. 

"Will  war  come?  If  it  does,  and  I  fall,  this  page  will  remain. 
But  I  here  direct  whoever  loves  me,  if  they  find  this  volume,  to 
destroy  it.     'Tis  intended  for  no  eye  but  mine — Remember!" 

Thus  Cooke  played  his  wonted  part  in  the  life  of  Rich- 
mond and  awaited  the  unrolling  of  destined  events.     His 

73 


74  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

daily  routine,  as  recorded  in  several  detailed  entries,  was 
much  the  same  as  in  the  middle  fifties.  The  old  names  of 
friends  recur,  and  there  are  new  ones.  Cooke  had  often 
visited  at  the  executive  mansion  in  the  days  when  Wise  was 
governor,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  quite  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  governor's  daughter  Annie1  (later  Mrs.  Hob- 
son),  the  novelist  and  the  first  young  lady  of  the  state 
each  perhaps  enjoying  the  glamor  afforded  by  associating 
with  the  other.  The  governor  esteemed  Cooke  most  highly, 
as  Annie  informed  him,  and  in  1861  the  impatient  writer 
often  sought  counsel  of  his  old  friend.  The  following  is 
the  entry  of  March  6 : 

"The  year  of  Revolution." 

"We  are  in  the  midst  of  it  .  .  .  and  yesterday  the  submissionista 
in  the  Convention — Dorman  of  Rockbridge  at  least — thought  the 
time  had  come  when  every  one  should  stand  fast  for — the  union. 

"Low  and  cowardly  submission  sounds  the  deepest  depths  of  in- 
famy.   But  let  it  pass.    We'll  fight,  and  the  time  is  near. 

"Yesterday  evening  I  went  to  the  Ballard  House  and  had  a  long 
talk  with  the  old  governor.  .  .  . 

"I  can't  compose,  I  can't  think  of  anything  but  Virginia's  degra- 
dation. 

"But  we'll  fight  our  way  out  yet,  and  crush  the  miserable  in- 
triguans  [sic]  who  are  stifling  the  brave  old  commonwealth — for 
brave  I  do  believe  she  is  at  her  heart. 

"God  defend  the  right!" 

The  vehemence  with  which  Cooke  embraced  the  cause  of 
secession  does  not  imply  that  he  did  so  without  a  careful 
balancing  of  the  issues  then  prominent.  Robert  E.  Lee's 
reluctance  in  quitting  the  United  States  Army  was  dwelt 
upon  by  Cooke  in  his  life  of  the  General,  and  is  well-known. 

i  The  story  "Annie  at  the  Corner"  is  a  tribute  to  Miss  Wise.  It 
was  printed  in  Putnam's  Monthly  in  June,  1856,  and  was  repub- 
lished in  Pretty  Mrs.  Gaston,  and  Other  Stories,  in  1874.  Of  Mrs. 
Hobson,  Prof.  William  Peterfield  Trent  says:  "My  first  teacher,  and 
a  charming  woman,  who  must  have  been  very  pretty  in  her  youth." 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  75 

Paul  Hamilton  Hayne 's  career  closely'  parallels  that  of 
Cooke— both  were  born  in  1830,  both  died  in  1886,  and 
both  rendered  distinguished  service  as  officers  in  the  Con- 
federate army— yet  in  May,  1860,  Hayne  felt  so  disgusted 
with  the  Charleston  Convention  that  he  unburdened  him- 
self to  his  Virginia  friend:  "I  must  say,  that  I  never  saw 
(of  course  there  were  illustrious  exceptions),  a  dirtier,  a 
more  blackguard  set  of  fellows;  half  of  the  number  were 
drunk,  and  the  remainder  could  hardly  be  called  sober. 
In  sad  earnest,  what,  mon  ami,  is  to  be  the  fate  of  this  great 
Republic?  Are  we  not  drifting  headlong  to  the  Devil?" 
Cooke,  like  Hayne,  kept  an  open  mind  until  he  felt  it 
necessary  to  choose  definitely  one  way  or  the  other. 

John  Esten  's  soldier  uncle,  Philip  St.  George  Cooke,  who 
had  spent  much  of  his  time  on  the  Western  frontier,  cast 
his  lot  with  the  North  and  remained  an  officer  in  the  Union 
army.  " Flora,"  he  had  written  to  his  nephew  in  1856, 
"was  married,  rather  suddenly — to  Mr.  [J.  E.  B.]  Stuart 
of  Va.  ...  He  is  a  remarkably  fine,  promising,  pure 
young  man;  and  has  had  so  far  extraordinary  promotion. 
He  is  a  1st  Lieut.  1st  Cavalry."  This  son-in-law  and  an 
only  son,  John  Rogers  Cooke,  II,  joined  the  Southern  army 
upon  the  outbreak  of  hostilities.  "Those  mad  boys,"  the 
father  is  reported  to  have  said  when  called  in  from  the 
West,  "if  only  I  had  been  here."  In  the  Peninsula  bat- 
tles the  Northern  general  commanded  a  cavalry  division 
and  was  opposed  by  his  son-in-law  and  his  nephew — a 
notable  pair,  for  the  son-in-law  was  the  greatest  of  Con- 
federate cavalrymen,  and  the  nephew  was  perhaps  the 
best  known  writer  engaged  on  either  side.  Just  how  close 
he  came  to  his  enemy  uncle,  Cooke  of  course  never  knew, 
but  in  a  Confederate  advance  he  picked  up  and  later  pre- 
served in  his  scrap-book  an  envelope  addressed  to  him. 
The  Pendletons  and  Kennedys,  and  others  of  Cooke's  kin 


76  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

who  lived  near  the  upper  Potomac,  witnessed  in  their  fam- 
ilies a  division  similar  to  that  among  the  Cookes.  Here 
then  was  the  basis  for  the  pitting  of  relative  against  relative 
— a  characteristic  of  the  plot  of  each  of  Cooke's  Civil  War 
romances,  and  of  nearly  all  later  stories  of  the  Civil  War. 
Cooke's  military  career  really  began  before  the  Civil  War. 
He  joined  the  Richmond  Howitzers,  apparently  in  the 
late  fifties,  and  was  despatched  to  Harper's  Ferry  upon 
the  occasion  of  the  John  Brown  raid.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  the  company  of  Howitzers  was  expanded  to  a 
battalion  and  Cooke  was  made  a  sergeant,  in  which  capacity 
he  commanded  a  gun  at  First  Manassas.  "He  was  pow- 
der-blackened, ' '  wrote  George  Cary  Eggleston,  who  chanced 
to  see  him  on  the  field  of  battle,  "and  he  had  lost  both  his 
coat  and  his  hat  in  the  eagerness  of  his  service  at  the  piece ; 
but  during  a  brief  pause  in  the  firing  he  greeted  me  with 
a  rammer  in  his  hand  and  all  the  old  cheeriness  in  his  face 
and  voice."  Cooke  was  soon  a  first  lieutenant,  was  recom- 
mended for  a  captaincy,  and  was  sent  to  Richmond  in  1862 
to  recruit  a  company  for  the  Horse  Artillery.  Whether  or 
not  success  was  achieved  by  his  advertisement  in  a  paper  and 
by  his  poster  headed  ' '  100  Patriotic  Men  Wanted, ' '  he  does 
not  say,  but  by  March  he  was  chafing  terribly  under  the  in- 
action. ' '  My  valley, ' '  he  wrote,  * '  my  cousins,  nieces,  and 
the  graves  of  my  brothers  are  in  possession  of  a  brutal  and 
infamous  foe.  Banks  is  ere  now  master  of  Winchester. ' ' 
Cooke  describes  a  splendid  review  of  Stuart's  cavalry  on 
Franklin  Street.  The  youthful  general  is  ready  for  Cooke 
as  soon  as  he  is  commissioned.  "My  whole  heart  goes  out 
to  that  gallant  defender  of  our  liberties  ...  if  I  can  only 
get  my  commission  and  be  sent  to  Yorktown  where  there 
is  imminent  danger  of  a  fight — this  may  be  the  last  entry  in 
this  book  I  will  ever  make — if  I  fall  the  enemy  will  have 
stilled  a  heart  as  true  as  any  that  beats,  to  the  Southern 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  77 

land."  He  speaks  of  the  likelihood  of  being  detailed  as 
a  private  for  some  local  police- work.  "So  be  it,"  he  con- 
cludes.   "Any  capacity  that  helps  the  cause  suits  me." 

Cooke  was  soon  again  to  see  active  service  with  Stuart 
in  the  famous  ride  around  McClellan.  "It  was  a  splendid 
affair,"  he  recorded  on  June  16,  "and  Stuart  is  the  king 
of  the  hour.  ...  I  will  only  say  that  I  was  busy  all  the 
expedition:  carrying  orders  up  and  down  the  line  every- 
where— and  that  Gen.  Jeb.  (in  the  words  of  the  'Dispatch') 
seemed  'pleased'  with  me.  I  don't  care  whether  he  was 
or  not — I  know  I  did  the  best  I  could,  and  on  the  chicken 
hominy,  as  Captain  Von  Borcke  calls  it,  I  laughed  and 
joked,  and  cheered  the  men,  when  the  river  was  in  front 
and — Gen.  Cooke  in  the  rear !  They  sent  for  him  I  heard, 
and  Stuart  escaped  him.  Stuart  must  be  a  great  general  to 
foil  his  father-in-law.  ...  I  think  Gen.  Cooke  a  man  of 
first  rate  military  genius.  Why  did  not  he  follow  the  hoof 
marks  on  a  dirt  road  of  2000  cavalry  t  Perhaps  what  Mrs. 
Morris  says  is  true — that  he  is  perfectly  miserable  and 
hopes  the  first  ball  will  kill  him.  Sad,  very  sad.  .  .  . 
Well,  here  I  am  where  I  never  expected  to  be.  I  doubted 
if  I  would  arrive.  .  .  .  Gen.  Jeb.  is  a  trump,  and  I  am  tired 
and  sleepy.    25  times  asleep  in  the  saddle. 

Cooke  seems  to  have  served  continuously  in  the  defense  of 
the  capital  against  McClellan.  In  the  middle  of  July  he 
was  in  Richmond,  "home  again  after  Cold  Harbor,  the 
White  House,  and  Charles  City,"  was  "sick  and  languid 
from  bile  caught  in  the  White  Oak  Swamp,"  and  was  chaf- 
ing at  the  army's  failure  to  assume  a  constant  offensive. 
"If  I  get  thro'  this  war  I  will  have  much  to  write  of — if. 
My  notes  of  the  great  trip  with  Jackson's  army  to  Cold 
Harbor  and  back,  are  in  my  little  book1  which  I  carry  in 

i  The  loss  of  this  diary  left  the  first  two  years  of  Cooke's  war 
service  largely  unrecorded. 


78  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

my  breast  pocket — written  on  the  field  and  fresh  with  the 
spirit  of  the  moment.  .  .  .  The  war  groes  [sic]  tiresome 
— very.  When  will  it  end?  The  lying  Northern  prints 
prolong  it — following  the  beck  of  a  bestial,  foul-souled  ad- 
ministration. I  see  but  one  hope  of  a  speedy  end  to  it — the 
English  fleet.    But  to  that  we  should  not,  and  will  not  look. " 

Perhaps  on  the  basis  of  his  participation  in  Stuart's  ride, 
Cooke  received  his  regular  commission  as  Captain  of  Artil- 
lery in  July,  1862.  "Here  I  am,"  he  wrote  in  Richmond 
on  August  17, ' '  smoking  in  my  room,  on  Sunday  evening — 
having  been  sent  down  by  mon  general  [sic]  on  Ordnance 
business.  I  have  gone  up  with  him  one  step — being  now 
' Captain  of  Artillery,'  and  'Ord.  Off.  Stuart's  Cav.  Divn.' 
Another  bar  upon  the  collar  and  the  cuff — and  some  more 
satisfaction.  My  boy1  is  safe  again  after  'Cedar  Run.' 
But  poor  Dick  Cunningham  is  gone — my  old  friend  and 
comrade.  God  rest  him!  This  book  will  go  under  lock 
and  key  directly ;  so — we  are  on  the  march  to  take  the  front 
of  Jackson 's  army,  which  will  press  the  vulgar  bully  Pope 
to  the  wall.  Then,  ho!  for  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania. 
The  war  grows  more  desperate  with  every  battle — and  must 
soon  end.  God  grant  it.  For  me,  I  am  agreeably  fixed 
with  Stuart ;  some  fine  fellows  on  the  staff — some  very  poor 
company — and  I  like  my  life;  making  myself  busy  and 
useful.  I  dream,  between  times,  of  happier  times,  of  tran- 
quil country  haunts,  of  writing,  pondering  on  those  times 
with  Nat  and  my  dear  ones  around  me.  May  God  the  all 
Merciful  preserve  my  boy  and  all  my  dear  ones,  and  me — 
but  more  than  our  lives,  our  souls.  To  Him,  be  glory  and 
praise  and  submission.     Still:   Esperance!   Toujours." 

After  about  a  year's  service  as  captain,  part  of  the  time 

i  Philip  Pendleton  Cooke's  eldest  son,  Nathaniel,  often  referred 
to  as  Nat. 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  79 

as  aide-de-camp  to  Stuart,  Cooke  had,  in  the  words  of  his 
friend  Eggleston,  earned  a  reputation  for  "nonchalance 
under  fire"  and  an  "eager  readiness  to  undertake  Stuart's 
most  perilous  missions,"  and  was  recommended  by  the 
great  cavalryman  as  a  major  for  his  staff  with  transfer  from 
artillery  to  ordnance.  Eggleston  gives  a  delightful  account 
of  the  dramatic  way  in  which  Stuart  chose  to  break  the  news 
to  Cooke: 

"  'You're  about  my  size,  Cooke/  Stuart  said,  'but  you're  not  so 
broad  in  the  chest.' 

"  'Yes,  I  am,'  answered  Cooke. 

"  'Let's  see  if  you  are,'  said  Stuart,  taking  off  his  coat  as  if  strip- 
ping for  a  boxing  match.     'Try  that  on.' 

"Cooke  donned  the  coat  with  its  three  stars  on  the  collar,  and 
found  it  a  fit. 

"  'Cut  off  two  of  the  stars,'  commanded  Stuart,  'and  wear  the 
coat  to  Richmond.  Tell  the  people  in  the  War  Department  to  make 
you  a  major  and  send  you  back  in  a  hurry.    I'll  need  you  tomorrow.' " 

This  promotion  was  approved  by  Lee  who  at  once  began 
to  call  Cooke  Major,  a  title  bestowed  upon  him  throughout 
the  remainder  of  his  life  by  his  comrades  in  arms.  General 
Cooper  of  the  Richmond  staff  ruled,  however,  that  Stuart 
already  had  his  full  complement  of  majors,  but  gave  Cooke 
a  temporary  transfer  to  the  Ordnance  Department.  Lieu- 
tenants Freanor  and  Ryals  and  Captain  White  of  Stuart's 
division  were  soon  advanced  over  Cooke,  and  he  entered  a 
protest.  He  was  a  personal  friend  of  the  three  officers, 
was  not  jealous  of  their  promotion,  but  wished  if  possible 
to  remove  the  reflection  on  his  ability  as  an  officer  occa- 
sioned thereby.  Although  making  no  formal  complaint, 
he  urged  that  something  be  done.  But  Lee,  Stuart,  and  his 
own  efforts  could  not  avail.  He  was  still  a  captain  at  the 
end  of  the  war. 

Cooke  was  permanently  grieved  by  this  failure  to  advance 
in  grade  and  never  understood  why  he  was  not  promoted. 


80  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

He  preserved  all  the  documents  in  the  case  to  show  the 
high  quality  of  his  recommendations.  The  secret  of  the 
matter  seems  to  lie  in  certain  eventualities  that  grew  out 
of  his  being  a  man  of  letters.  The  Life  of  Stonewall  Jack- 
son, which  appeared  soon  after  the  general's  death  in  1863, 
contains  quietly  worded  passages  which  might  well  have 
nettled  a  high-handed  and  inexperienced  administration. 
Cooke,  like  Jackson,  was  unalterably  of  the  party  which 
pleaded  for  a  policy  of  following  up  successes  with  the  view 
of  destroying  the  retreating  army.  The  aim  of  the  staff 
at  the  capital  seemed  to  him  less  the  winning  of  the  war 
than  the  protection  of  Richmond.  Cooke  had  also  been  a 
leading  contributor  to  the  Messenger,  and  the  Messenger 
was  constantly  flaying  the  administration.  Besides  the 
Life  of  Jackson,  which  was  really  only  an  account  of  Jack- 
son's battles,  he  wrote  poems  and  long  dispatches  for  the 
Richmond  papers.  His  maps  of  battles  made  their  way  into 
the  press.  In  his  '•' Outlines  from  the  Outpost,"  in  the 
Southern  Illustrated  News,  Cooke  spoke  in  superlative 
terms  of  the  Stonewall  Brigade.  This  was  not  always  ap- 
preciated— elicited,  in  fact,  expressions  of  disapproval  from 
excited  readers.  "I  see  no  reason,"  wrote  one,  "why  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  except  the  Stonewall  Brigade,  should 
not  be  disbanded  and  sent  home,  and  leave  that  immortal 
Brigade  which  has  done  all  the  fighting  to  crown  themselves 
with  immortality  by  ending  the  war  alone."  An  illiterate 
private,  or  more  probably  someone  posing  as  such,  wrote: 
"the  Solgars  is  hard  down  on  that  artical  tell  that  Riter  fo 
God  Sak  to  stop  it."  In  the  case  of  Cooke,  the  writer  was, 
thus,  never  fully  submerged  in  the  soldier,  and  the  writer 
always  said  what  he  thought  or  wished  to  say.  To  deny 
promotion  upon  such  grounds,  is  natural,  if  not  noble ;  but 
Cooke  was  too  high-souled  to  suspect  the  apparent  reason 
for  his  having  never  obtained  his  majority. 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  81 

Cooke's  numerous  staff  duties  caused  him  to  see  much  of 
the  generals  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  He  nar- 
rates some  interesting  anecdotes.  "Gen.  Early  and  Gov. 
Letcher  lived  with  us.  Early  a  gay  old  militaire:  he  and 
the  Gov.  running  each  other  incessantly."  Stuart  was 
famous  for  his  liking  for  music.  He  recruited  his  band 
from  the  best  talent  of  his  command — in  at  least  one  case 
to  the  great  displeasure  of  Colonel,  later  Brigadier-General, 
Thomas  T.  Munford.1  While  Cooke  wrote  in  his  tent  on 
army  and  personal  matters  the  great  cavalryman  would 
often  be  singing  "Her  bright  smile  haunts  me  still,"  or 
other  favorite  songs.  High  officers  were  sometimes  flip- 
pant. Gordon  severely  teased  Venable  in  a  "discussion  of 
the  propriety  or  impropriety  of  kissing — Gordon  urging 
former  with  a  side  wink"  at  Cooke,  while  Venable  re- 
mained " horrorstruck  and  indignantly  virtuous."  In  the 
case  of  the  enemy,  jokes  were  sometimes  replaced  by  po- 
tentially serious  moves.  Having  captured  a  Federal  offi- 
cer's trunk  containing  beautiful  letters  from  a  wife  and 
obscene  ones  from  a  mistress  reveling  in  the  wife's  igno- 
rance of  the  relation,  Stuart  sent  all  of  them  to  the  wife, 
Cooke  inferring,  doubtless  correctly,  that  there  would  be  a 
"fuss  in  that  family."  But  "Yankee"  officers  were  not 
always  sordid.  Philip  Pendleton  Cooke's  daughters  were 
in  occupied  territory  and  "a  Yankee  Lieut."  brought  to 

i  "The  Sweeneys,  two  quite  celebrated  minstrels,  had  enlisted  in 
the  Appomattox  Company  of  my  Regt. ;  they  were  great  banjo  and 
violinists,  and  General  Stuart's  feet  would  shuffle  at  their  presence 
or  naming.  He  issued  an  order  for  them  to  report  at  his  quarters 
and  'detained  them.'  It  was  a  right  he  enjoyed,  but  not  very  pleas- 
ing to  me  or  my  Regiment.  'Music  hath  charms  to  soothe  the  savage 
breast.'  When  Capt.  Cooke  was  on  Stuart's  staff  he  used  to  laugh 
at  me  for  'not  coming  over  to  enjoy  our  music,'  until  it  came  to 
be  a  sore  subject  to  me." — General  Munford  to  J.  0.  B.,  January 
14,  1917. 


82  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

Pennie  with  his  compliments  a  copy  of  the  New  York  edi- 
tion of  her  uncle's  Life  of  Stonewall  Jackson.  "On  the 
road  to  the  second  Manassas, ' '  Cooke  saw  Lee,  who  as  usual 
impressed  him  profoundly :  ' '  Gen.  Lee 's  attitude  was  what 
I  have  always  seen  in  him  everywhere — one  of  invincible, 
supreme  repose :  and  settled  resolution — as  of  a  man  whom 
no  reverse  can  dismay,  and  no  anxiety  flurry.  This,  which 
I  have  seen,  a  hundred  times,  convinces  me  that  Lee  is,  in 
the  foundation  of  his  character,  as  in  the  superstructure, 
a  very  great  man.  No  man  in  public  affairs  now,  is  so  great 
a  type  of  the  great  Virginia  race.  He  reminds  me  always 
of  my  father." 

In  his  various  capacities  Cooke  was  often  detailed  on 
long  journeys,  alone  or  with  but  few  attendants.  He  en- 
joyed the  chincapins,  chestnuts,  persimmons,  and  wild 
grapes  which,  in  season,  abounded  in  rural  Virginia.  In 
all  save  one  or  two  cases  he  was  fed  gladly  by  those  at  whose 
houses  he  stopped,  and  often  rewarded  graciousness  by  a 
word  in  his  diary.  "Went  with  Major  Peyton  to  Mr.  Finks' 
— Bob  Hunter  and  Ben  Turner  along — and  got  'refresh- 
ments' liquid  and  solid.  Fell  in  love  with  Miss  Lucy's  lips 
and  dimples — she  is  very  like  Pelham.  She  knew  Farley; 
he  had  often  been  there  .  .  .  bless  her! — also  Mrs.  Finks. 
Dimples  in  former ;  kindness  in  latter,  overwhelming. ' '  But 
Cooke's  good  words  were  not  spoken  of  the  upper  classes 
only.  The  possession  of  social  privileges  did  not  make  him 
disagreeable  either  toward  colored  persons  or  toward  whites 
less  well  situated  in  the  world.  Before  the  war  the  Cooke 
family  went  once,  upon  invitation,  to  eat  a  dinner  prepared 
for  them  by  Mammy  Giddy  in  her  Richmond  cabin.  "I 
must  speak  of  Miss  Lang,"  says  Cooke  in  his  war-diary, 
describing  a  hospitable  reception  on  one  of  his  journeys. 
"She  was  a  girl  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  apparently,  of  the 
poorer  class.  .  .  .  She  .  .  .  had  the  softest,  sweetest  voice  I 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  83 

think  I  ever  heard.  She  was  tolerably  good-looking — wore 
no  hoops — and  lent  me  with  a  smile  Sue 's  '  Ater  Gull '  [sic~\ , 
1  Female  Bluebeard'  and  other  blood  and  thunder  romances, 
picked  up  from  the  Yankees. ' '  He  further  records  that  she 
attended  to  his  "supper-cravings"  with  "great  good  na- 
ture, ' '  and  concludes :  ' '  May  she  be  happy. ' '  Cooke  not  only 
supplied  himself  with  personal  accessories  such  as  a  rain- 
coat, a  blanket,  and  a  pair  of  trousers,  upon  a  Federal  re- 
treat, but  on  more  than  one  occasion  made  additions  to  his 
library.  Between  his  duties  and  his  writing  he  naturally 
had  no  time  for  an  extended  course  of  reading.  In  camp, 
however,  he  had  a  habit  of  rising  early  to  read  chapter  after 
chapter  in  the  Bible  by  firelight  before  taking  up  the  day's 
duties,  and  devoted  himself  assiduously  to  such  serious 
works  as  Bourrienne's  Memoirs  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte. 

A  young  lady  of  Cooke's  chance  acquaintance  urged 
him  to  be  sufficiently  brave,  but  not  reckless.  He  may  not 
have  been  unduly  reckless  habitually,  but  he  soon  learned 
on  his  rides  not  to  let  the  enemy  hurry  him  too  quickly 
from  a  meal.  Once,  in  Fauquier,  he  was  driven  away  from 
a  "party  en  regie — low  necks,  bare  arms,  fine  dresses," 
by  an  excited  cavalryman  who  mistakenly  supposed  the 
enemy  was  approaching.  He  finally  reached  the  stage  where 
he  would  continue  to  eat  from  a  plate  standing  by  his 
horse  until  a  hostile  scouting  squad  was  within  two  hundred 
yards,  and  then  toss  down  his  coffee  and  gallop  away. 

On  Lee's  advance  into  Pennsylvania  Cooke's  entertain- 
ment in  Maryland  was  quite  as  generous  as  it  was  in  Vir- 
ginia, though  such  was  not  the  fate  of  the  army  as  a  whole. 
Maryland  youth  seemed  to  be  fascinated  by  the  Southern 
cause.  The  Confederate  cavalry  was  given  an  enthusiastic 
reception  by  the  young  ladies  of  the  Rockville  female  semi- 
nary who  flocked  to  the  windows  in  holiday  costume  waving 
sheet  music  bearing  Confederate  flags.     Cooke,  however, 


84  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

met  in  Maryland  one  situation  which  baffled  him.  When 
the  Confederates  occupied  Westminster,  he  was  detailed  to 
search  the  house  of  a  Captain  Wampler  and  bring  away  the 
United  States  Post  Office  money  which  was  known  to  be  con- 
cealed in  it.  The  captain  was  ostensibly  suffering  too  much 
to  speak,  and  his  little  daughter  conducted  the  unwelcome 
visitor  through  the  various  rooms.  Cooke  became  very 
much  ashamed  at  rummaging  among  her  garments  and 
trinkets,  was  sure  the  man  had  the  money  beneath  him  in 
bed,  but  did  not  have  the  heart  to  move  him  as  he  was  crying 
out  in  pain  with  his  wife  at  his  side.  Cooke  said  he  would 
search  no  more  houses  if  the  ladies  objected.  A  feature 
of  the  Northern  advance  was  the  purchase  of  articles  at  a 
reasonable  price.  In  Virginia,  after  buying  the  cloth,  Cooke 
had  had  to  pay  $175  for  the  mere  tailoring  of  a  suit ;  and 
at  Christmas,  1863,  when  he  went  to  see  his  sister  Sal  he 
carried  two  pounds  of  candy  which  had  cost  $8  a  pound. 

Many  of  Cooke's  war  notes  were  written  in  winter  quar- 
ters in  1863-64  near  Orange.  He  was  comfortably  estab- 
lished in  an  abode  which  he  called  the  " Wigwam:"  "My 
tent  is  on  the  side  of  the  hill,  just  above  the  general's  and 
I  have  a  huge  stone  fireplace,  built  by  myself,  a  bed  of  logs, 
plank,  and  Yankee  tick,  stuffed  with  hay — desk  here  on  the 
right:  plank  hearth;  saddle  on  crosspiece  in  the  corner 
to  my  right  ..."  In  this  retreat  he  recorded  the  personal 
element  in  his  campaigning,  and  took  stock  of  his  imagined 
aging,  of  his  lessening  susceptibility  to  female  beauty. 
"What  ails  me.  I  dream  no  longer — and  'love'  no  one — 
in  the  romantic  sense.  Am  I  growing  cold,  as  I  certainly 
am  getting  old?  The  gayest  eyes  do  not  move  Mr.  Joy- 
euse  Gent.1  The  other  day  Marion  Skelton  who  is  certainly 
a  perfect  little  beauty  was  so  outrageous  as  to  put  her  head 

i  "Tristan  Joyeuse,  Gent."  was  a  pseudonym  under  which  Cooke 
published  some  of  his  fugitive  ante-bellum  work, 


THE    CIVIL   WAE  85 

on  one  side,  look  at  me  coquettishly,  and  murmur  as  the 
romance  writers  say,  in  a  languid  tone,  with  a  golden  smile, 
'you  needn't  try  to  resist  and  stay  away — for  you'll  find 
at  last,  you  can't  live  without  me!'  ...  I  could  have 
kissed  the  pretty  mouth  that  uttered  the  words,  and  was 
then  so  near — but  sentiments  of  propriety  forbade.  And 
the  words  scarcely  moved  this  old  bird  of  33.' ' 

Of  late  '64  and  early  '65  Cooke  had  nothing  to  say.  A 
crushing  sense  of  the  futility  of  further  struggle  for  the 
Southern  cause  probably  descended  upon  him,  just  as  the 
numerous  deaths  in  his  family  bore  down  his  spirit  at  the 
close  of  the  fifties.  He  kept  no  diary ;  and  sisters,  nephew, 
and  nieces  complained  of  not  hearing  from  him  for  months. 
Fighting  as  he  did  at  First  Manassas  and  surrendering  at 
Appomattox,  Cooke  always  considered  it  remarkable  that 
he  never  received  a  wound.  In  his  diary  he  checked  off 
his  fallen  friends  and  relatives,  and  recounted  his  escapes. 
Once  a  bullet  struck  a  fence  but  a  few  inches  from  his  head ; 
again,  he  was  stunned  by  a  bursting  shell  and  was  covered 
by  the  thrown-up  earth.  It  was,  however,  an  old  habit  to 
close  every  entry  with  an  expression  of  hope  in  God,  and 
he  saw  fulfilled  his  reiterated  wish  to  be  allowed  to  return 
to  his  beloved  Valley.  After  Stuart's  death  at  Yellow 
Tavern,  Cooke  had  been  assigned  to  the  staff  of  General 
Pendleton  and  was  his  inspector-general  of  horse  artillery 
when  the  end  came.  Paroled  at  Appomattox,  he  is  said 
to  have  buried  his  silver  spurs  upon  the  field  to  avoid  de- 
livering them  to  his  late  foes. 

Cooke's  parents  had  never  owned  a  home  in  Richmond. 
They  and  his  brothers  were  dead,  and  the  city's  periodicals 
had  been  wrecked  by  the  war — so  Cooke  now  regarded 
Richmond  neither  as  his  home  nor  as  a  suitable  place  for 
earning  a  livelihood.  .  .  .  One  sister  lived  in  Amelia,  and 
one   in   New   Kent,   but  the   great   bulk   of   his   relatives 


86  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Winchester.  ' '  My  first  thought 
on  the  surrender,"  he  wrote,  "was  to  go  to  Amelia — get 
my  two  horses  fat  on  grass — sell  them — go  to  N.  Y. — write, 
and  look  Paris-ward."  But  the  more  practical  if  less  im- 
aginative Ned  Dandridge  said  "Come  on,  let's  go  home." 
Cooke  and  two  others  joined  him,  and  covered  in  nine 
days  the  distance  from  Appomattox  to  the  Valley  neigh- 
borhood where  the  writer's  civilian  life  was  to  be  renewed 
among  his  relatives  and  amid  the  scenes  of  his  boyhood. 

"When  Cooke  reached  the  lower  valley  he  stopped  at  "The 
Vineyard,"  the  home  of  the  family  of  his  brother  Philip, 
for  a  month  of  idleness  and  rest — needed,  one  can  well 
imagine,  by  a  veteran  of  Lee's  army.  During  the  summer 
he  made  several  visits,  but  in  the  fall  settled  definitely 
at  "The  Vineyard."  Since  Cooke  had  owned  no  real 
estate,  the  end  of  the  war  had  left  him  absolutely  penniless. 
He  was  not,  however,  without  potential  assets.  He  had  an 
enlarged  life  of  Jackson  in  manuscript ;  he  had,  of  course, 
his  reputation  as  a  writer;  and  he  had  a  vast  unworked 
field  to  draw  upon  for  subject-matter.  His  military  duties 
and  achievements;  his  acquaintance  with  the  great  Con- 
federate leaders  while  they  were  in  action ;  his  diary-chroni- 
cled adventures  of  securing  food,  seeing  pretty  women,  and 
escaping  death — these  were  not  the  only  features  of  Cooke 's 
four  years  of  war.  He  had  carried  into  his  experiences  a 
romantic  turn  of  mind,  and  in  every  lurking  figure  saw — ■ 
at  least  in  retrospect — not  only  a  wary  spy,  but  a  person  on 
sinister  private  business.  Remote  places  were  easily  peopled 
in  his  imagination  by  characters  intent  upon  crime,  or 
escape,  or  vengeance. 

Cooke's  material  for  writing  was  thus  of  a  threefold  na- 
ture. He  might  devote  himself  to  the  history  of  the  period, 
he  might  record  anecdotes  and  personal  reminiscences,  or 
he  might  use  his  experience  as  the  basis  of  fiction.  In  fact, 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  87 

he  used  the  same  material  in  all  three  ways.  His  writings 
on  the  Civil  War  are  easily  classified.  The  biographies  of 
Lee  and  Jackson  together  cover  the  main  events  of  the  war 
in  Virginia.  Surry  of  Eagle's-Nest  is  a  close  parallel  of 
Jackson,  just  as  Mohun  is  of  Lee — the  major  events  are 
the  same,  the  novels  having  an  interweaving  of  fiction.  The 
same  material  served  further  as  the  basis  for  Cooke's  numer- 
ous periodical  articles,  the  best  of  which  he  collected  into 
volume  form  under  the  titles  Wearing  of  the  Gray  and 
Hammer  and  Rapier.  Hilt  to  Hilt  stands  slightly  apart 
from  Cooke 's  other  books  on  the  War ;  it  is  a  novel  dealing 
with  Mosby's  field  of  action,  in  particular  the  lower  Valley 
of  Virginia. 

Cooke  did  not  find  it  hard  to  resume  writing.  His  home 
surroundings  were  propitious.  Even  while  campaigning,  he 
had  given  himself  considerable  practice  by  his  contribu- 
tions to  the  Confederate  newspapers,  and  now  after  the  war 
he  frequently  received  letters  urging  him  to  use  his  pen  in 
defence  of  the  prostrate  South.  Fitzhugh  Lee  even  sug- 
gested the  facetious  title  "Southern  Generals,  who  they 
are  and  what  they  done, ' '  and  upon  another  occasion  wrote : 

"I  send  you  a  document — and  now  you,  d it,  put  me  on 

the  highest  pinnacle  of  history  that  my  young  ones  (after 
I  get  them)  may  crawl  up  and  read  of  their  daddy's  doings 
in  bygone  days."  Cooke,  moreover,  was  always  a  facile 
writer.  His  only  problem  now  was  to  be  more  gentle  in 
the  epithets  applied  to  the  North,  and  this  perhaps  was 
not  a  very  hard  task.  By  the  summer  of  1865  he  had  begun 
his  contributions  to  the  New  York  World.  He  received  ten 
dollars  a  column  and  the  cash  in  hand  was  a  godsend.  The 
first  book  he  thought  of  was  a  revised  biography  of  Jackson. 

A  Life  of  Stonewall  Jackson  had  been  written  by  Cooke 
at  the  ' '  persevering  requests  of  Ayres  and  Wade, ' '  was  pub- 
lished by  them  in  Richmond  in  1863,  and  was  pirated  and 


88  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

brought  out  in  New  York  at  approximately  the  same  time 
by  Charles  B.  Richardson.  This  work  was  the  basis  of  the 
bulkier  Stonewall  Jackson:  a  Military  Biography  which  D. 
Appleton  and  Company  published  in  1866.  The  first  book 
was  begun  ' '  under  a  breadth  of  canvass ' '  at  Stuart 's  camp 
east  of  Orange  Court  House  early  in  May,  1863,  and  there- 
after was  continued  from  place  to  place  as  war  duties  per- 
mitted. Its  composition  was  attended  by  the  physical  diffi- 
culties occasioned  by  chattering  officers,  flaring  candles,  and 
intermittent  fighting.  It  was  "  written  in  a  tent,  on  the 
outpost ;  the  enemy  yonder,  almost  in  view — but  with  Jack- 
son, alas !  no  longer  in  front.  The  real  historian  of  his  life 
will  write  in  a  quiet  study,  in  the  tranquil  days  of  peace, 
with  no  enemy,  let  us  hope,  anywhere  in  view,  on  all  the 
vast  horizon  of  the  Confederate  States."  Cooke  stated 
that  the  account  was  given  largely  "in  the  words  of  Gen- 
eral Jackson's  official  reports,"  but  he  relied  considerably 
upon  newspaper  accounts  both  Northern  and  Southern,  as 
well  as  upon  the  testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  including  him- 
self. The  manuscript  was  "entrusted  to  Col.  Tyler  A.  A. 
G.,  for  transmission  to  Richmond.  But  it  didn't  go!  It 
was  put  by  someone  in  the  P.  O.  at  Winchester,  without 
stamps — a  friend  recognized  my  hand  and  paid  them — and 
the  ms,  at  last,  about  August,  reached  the  publishers." 

With  only  four  pages  devoted  to  the  first  thirty-seven 
years  of  the  life  of  a  man  who  was  killed  at  thirty-nine, 
the  book  as  a  life  is  absurdly  disproportioned.  It  is,  how- 
ever, much  more  interesting  than  its  expanded  later  edition. 
It  is  unique  among  Cooke's  works  in  that  it  was  written 
not  in  the  United  States,  but  in  the  Confederacy  before 
the  Southern  star  had  begun  to  decline  at  Gettysburg.  The 
Northern  army  is  shown  as  Cooke  saw  it  in  the  early  sum- 
mer of  1863.  For  many  of  the  Federal  generals  he  has  no 
adverse  comment,  but  he  cannot  tolerate  Pope.     "Let  us 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  89 

not  speak  of  him  with  indignation,  or  in  terms  of  labored 
insult.  Opprobrious  epithets  cannot  reach  him;  and  the 
present  writer  would  derive  no  satisfaction  from  dwelling 
on  the  fact  that  Gen.  Pope,  as  all  now  concede,  was  a  brag- 
gart, a  poltroon,  guilty  of  systematic  falsehood ;  and  proved 
to  have  perpetrated  in  his  own  person  outrages  which 
mark  the  low-born,  and  low-bred  wretch."  " Booty  and 
beauty"  is  stated  by  Cooke  to  have  been  the  watchword 
of  Pope's  army.  " Some  companies  seemed  to  be  of  a  decent 
agricultural  or  mechanical  complexion,"  he  quotes  from 
the  Reverend  Mr.  George  of  Culpeper  County.  The  Irish 
were  not  too  bad,  but  Sigel's  " Germans"  were  " about  as 
cleanly  and  intellectual  as  the  overgrown  sows  of  'der 
Vaterland.'  "  "Next  came  the  selected  assassins  and 
thieves,  who  were  probably  received  upon  certificates  of 
their  actual  conviction  and  service  in  the  penitentiaries. 
And  last,  and  worst  of  all,  the  Puritans  and  psalm-singers 
of  pious  New  England."  The  book  is  permeated  with  an 
absolute  belief  that  Almighty  God  would  assure  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  the  Southern  cause.  Such  confidence 
tended  to  lead  to  a  last-ditch  resistance  and  must  have 
added  a  quintessence  of  pain  to  the  physical  calamity  of 
defeat. 

The  Life  of  Stonewall  Jackson  is  studded  with  superla- 
tives and  has  a  rapid  militant  style.  Written  under  strong 
emotional  pressure,  it  contains  many  passages  which  exhibit 
the  sumptuousness  of  the  older  type  of  Southern  public 
speech.  With  the  view  of  having  the  work  published  in 
London,  Cooke  revised  and  enlarged  it  in  the  winter  of 
1863-64;  and  sent  a  copy,  through  "Mr.  Benjamin's  State 
Department,"  to  England.  Commissioner  Mason,  to  whom 
it  was  directed,  wrote  in  the  fall  of  1865  that  it  had  never 
been  received.  The  original  of  the  expanded  Jackson  was 
put  in  the  hands  of  Cooke's  sister  Mary,  who  buried  it  in 


90  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

the  earth  when  Richmond  was  burned.  This  copy  was  not 
lost;  but  was,  of  course,  not  well  adapted  to  publication 
in  the  United  States  after  the  war.  Cooke,  therefore, 
" watered"  it  to  suit  the  changed  times  and — despite  the 
two  wholly  distinct  editions — the  life  of  Jackson  as  he 
liked  it  best  was  never  given  to  the  public. 

The  Appletons  prepared  a  superb  make-up  for  the  post- 
bellum  Stonewall  Jackson,  embellishing  it  with  full-page 
engravings  of  the  famous  generals  of  the  opposing  armies, 
and  binding  some  of  the  copies  handsomely  in  leather 
decorated  with  gold.  Meanwhile  Richardson,  hearing  of 
the  new  book,  hastened  to  bring  out  a  reprint  of  his  edition. 
Cooke  prevented  the  use  of  his  name,  acknowledging  the 
authorship  for  the  first  time,  the  work  having  previously 
been  spoken  of  in  the  North  as  presumably  by  the  Richmond 
editor,  John  M.  Daniel.  Richardson's  reprint  was  followed 
shortly  by  the  Appleton  Jackson,  which,  according  to  Cooke, 
"was  exquisitely  printed,  but  too  high  priced,  and  had 
only  a  sale  d'estime."  Although  nearly  twice  as  long  as 
the  earlier  book,  the  newer  requires  no  particular  comment. 
Like  its  predecessor,  it  is  a  record  of  campaigns  in  which 
Jackson  participated,  but  in  general  deals  with  him  not 
much  more  intimately  than  with  other  officers  of  high 
rank.  It  is  emphatically  not  a  biography  in  the  usual  sense. 
A  realization  of  the  truth  of  this  may  have  influenced  the 
substitution  of  "military  biography"  for  "life"  in  the 
title  of  the  enlarged  work. 

The  pay  from  the  World  and  the  prospects  from  Jack- 
son were  encouraging.  "I  wanted  ready  money  however," 
Cooke  later  recorded  in  his  literary  notes,  "and  wrote  to 
Richardson — before  our  misunderstanding— saying  that  I 
'wanted'  $200:  and  if  he  would  advance  that  amt.  I  would 
furnish  him  in  the  fall  of  that  year  with  the  ms.  of  an 
historical  romance,  bringing  in  Stuart  etc. — a  book  on  the 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  91 

war.  He  replied  courteously  that  he  only  published  histories 
but  had  some  friends  in  the  same  building  with  him,  to 
whom  he  would  hand  my  letter — which  he  did.  They  were 
Bunce  &  Huntington, — Bunce  being  the  head  man, — and 
Bunce  wrote  me  at  once  a  very  cordial  letter,  accepting  my 
proposition  and  authorizing  me  to  draw  on  him  for  $200. 
I  did  so,  and  remember  what  a  fortune  I  considered  it.  I 
was  penniless,  had  to  borrow  the  paper  upon  which  to  write 
the  World  sketches."  The  book  whose  future  was  thus 
mortgaged  was  Surry  of  Eagle's-Nest;  or  the  Memoirs  of  a 
Staff-Officer  serving  in  Virginia,  Edited  from  the  mss.  of 
Colonel  Surry.  Cooke  intended  to  make  the  book  largely 
autobiographical.  ' '  Occurred  to  me,  I  think  this  spring  of 
1865,"  he  wrote,  "tho'  the  idea  had  'come  across'  me,  I 
believe,  in  1864  at  Petersburg."  Work  was  begun  in 
August,  but  was  "resumed  in  earnest"  about  September 
15,  the  first  part  being  almost  wholly  rewritten.  The  book 
was  finished  on  November  1.  The  author  had  been  fre- 
quently cheered  along  in  the  composition  by  visits  to  the 
Page  seat  of  "Saratoga,"  and  he  spent  a  delightful  Christ- 
mas at  "The  Vineyard" — he  had  on  hand  proof-sheets  of 
both  Surry  and  Jackson,  and  among  the  guests  was  a  most 
attractive  lady,  Miss  Mary  Francis  Page,  who  was  later  to 
become  Mrs.  Cooke. 

Surry  of  Eagle  's-Nest,  to  a  degree  unapproached  by  even 
the  most  subjective  of  the  ante-bellum  romances,  was  written 
out  of  the  fullness  of  its  author 's  life  and  experience.  May 
Beverley,  the  heroine,  may  be  taken  as  a  portrait  of  Miss 
Page.  Like  the  girl  of  the  Valley,  the  girl  of  the  book 
sings  the  well-known  Verdi  airs  to  an  appreciative  lover. 
Charles  Beverley  is  perhaps  Mary  Page's  brother  Powel, 
who  was  a  close  friend  of  Cooke.  Surry,  like  the  author, 
is  a  staff-officer.  General  Turner  Ashby's  objection  to 
searching  the  belongings  of  ladies  may  well  have  been 


92  JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

copied  from  Cooke's  own  recorded  experience.  The  letter 
from  "N'importe"  about  Pelham  was  actually  received 
by  Cooke.  The  preponderating  war  element  was  drawn 
from  the  author's  own  service  and  observation. 

The  story  begins  in  the  exciting  preparatory  days  of 
Richmond  in  1861.  The  hero,  Surry,  comes  into  contact 
with  a  cowardly  dandy,  Baskerville,  in  company  with  whom 
is  a  young  woman  endowed  with  all  the  beauties  and  virtues. 
He  also  sees  a  mysterious  duel  in  Hollywood  Cemetery. 
Soon,  however,  Surry  is  commissioned  a  captain,  is  as- 
signed as  aide-de-camp  to  Jackson,  and  sets  out  for  Harper 's 
Ferry.  Passing  through  the  Spottsylvania  wilderness  he 
comes  upon  a  house  inhabited  by  an  insane  woman,  a 
beautiful  girl,  and  a  third  female,  a  keen-eyed  treacherous- 
looking  employee.  Nearer  the  Blue  Ridge  he  is  stunned 
by  a  limb  blown  from  a  tree  in  a  storm,  and  is  carried  to 
"The  Oaks,"  the  seat  of  Colonel  Beverley,  the  father  of  the 
beauty  he  saw  with  Baskerville.  May 's  father  had  covenanted 
with  the  now  dead  Baskerville,  Senior,  that  their  children 
should  marry,  and  May  has  at  fifteen  engaged  herself  to  a 
now  despised  but  persistent  suitor.  Surry  is  wholly  enam- 
ored of  May,  but  as  a  brave  man  and  a  soldier  he  merely 
takes  a  Browningesque  ' '  last  ride ' '  with  her  and  goes  away. 
While  in  the  neighborhood,  however,  he  becomes  acquainted 
with  the  moody  and  retiring  Mordaunt,  who  is  always  ac- 
companied by  a  faithful  Arab  youth,  Achmed.  The  war  now 
sets  to  work  on  these  characters  and  the  plot  is  evolved. 
Baskerville,  a  slacker  in  war,  is  quite  willing  to  release 
May  when  the  loss  of  her  slaves  deprives  her  of  her  wealth, 
and  Surry's  path  is  made  smooth.  Charley  marries  Sur- 
ry's sister,  and  Will  Surry,  the  Unionist  member  of  the 
family,  marries  a  Miss  Jennie  Clayton  provided  for  the 
purpose. 

There  remains  a  sub-plot — the  dark  and  sinister   ele- 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  93 

ment  in  the  book.  The  duelists  whom  Surry  saw  in  Holly- 
wood are  Mordaunt  and  Fenwick.  The  former  later  oper- 
ates with  the  Confederate  army;  the  latter,  with  the  Fed- 
eral. Some  years  previously  Mordaunt  was  successful  in 
winning  the  affections  of  a  girl  whom  the  two  men  loved. 
Fenwick,  nursing  a  desire  for  vengeance,  thereupon  caused 
the  wife  to  leave  home  with  him  by  pretending  through  a 
forged  letter  that  the  temporarily  absent  husband  re- 
quested it.  A  victim  of  "puerperal  fever"  she  lost  her 
mind  and  was  confined  in  an  asylum,  Mordaunt  being  in- 
formed that  she  had  eloped  with  the  evasive  Fenwick.  In 
the  rough  and  tumble  times  of  the  war,  Mrs.  Mordaunt 's 
innocence  is  established  and  she  dies,  whereupon  Mordaunt 
marries  Violet  Grafton,  who  is  a  living  physical  duplicate 
of  the  dead  woman  in  her  youthful  courtship  days.  After 
many  combats  Fenwick  is  killed,  not  by  Mordaunt  but  by 
the  latter 's  faithful  Achmed  who  receives  his  own  death- 
wound,  his  exit  being  necessary,  since  he  and  his  master 
love  the  same  woman.  In  the  general  disentanglement  of 
the  plot,  Mordaunt  finds  the  son  whom  he  has  never  seen. 
For  this  young  man,  who  has  been  known  as  Harry  Sal- 
toun,  a  Miss  Henrietta  Fitzhugh  is  provided  as  a  wife. 

"Has  the  reader  forgotten  Miss  Henrietta  Fitzhugh?" 
asks  the  author  who  rightly  supposes  the  characters  diffi- 
cult to  keep  up  with,  since  many  of  them  appear  only  oc- 
casionally in  the  lulls  between  the  battles.  In  one  place, 
more  than  a  hundred  pages  deal  uninterruptedly  with  the 
war.  "It  appears  to  me  that  my  memoirs  are  becoming 
a  pure  and  simple  history  of  the  war  in  Virginia,"  writes 
Surry.  The  alternate  consideration  of  great  events  and 
the  fates  of  the  characters  is  common  to  historical  novelists, 
but  in  the  present  case  the  actual  persons  are  delineated 
with  as  great  minuteness  as  the  fictitious  ones,  and  no  dis- 
tinction is  made  between  them.     Surry  is  at  once  a  re- 


94  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

flection  of  its  author's  faults  and  an  earnest  of  what  he 
might  have  achieved.  If  Cooke  had  forgotten  his  over- 
worked Irvingesque  habit  of  "editing"  a  supposed  manu- 
script, had  left  out  the  Mordaunt-Fenwick  plot,  had  even 
left  out  the  big  events  of  history,  and — as  he  first  intended 
— had  given  in  his  fluent,  agreeable  style  an  account  of  his 
experiences,  his  book  might  have  been  of  perennial  interest. 
In  its  actual  form  Surry  has  too  much  history  to  be  ex- 
cellent fiction ;  and  it  mingles  the  real  Farley,  Pelham,  and 
others  with  fictitious  persons  of  the  same  and  higher  rank 
to  such  a  degree  that  as  history  it  is  sometimes  confusing 
and  in  small  details  actually  misinforming.  The  attempted 
blending  of  two  distinct  elements,  a  wildly  improbable 
Gothic  tale  and  a  record  of  a  career  in  the  Civil  War,  re- 
sults in  a  species  of  romance  for  which  no  large  numbers 
of  later  general  readers — boys  perhaps  excepted — are  likely 
to  have  a  pronounced  taste. 

The  composition  of  Surry  occupied  about  six  weeks,  and 
the  results  of  the  haste  are  plainly  seen.  Portions  of  Stone- 
wall Jackson  are  incorporated  bodily.  There  are  stylistic 
faults.  Rapidity  of  composition  may  be  blamed  for  such 
banalities  as  a  "long  farewell  to  the  only  woman  he  had 
ever  loved,"  but  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  so  practiced  a 
writer  as  Cooke  would  have  introduced  the  chapters  "Ar- 
cades Ambo ' '  and  ' '  Mordaunt  's  Secret, ' '  in  which  Fenwick 
—solely  for  the  benefit  of  Surry,  who  is  at  the  window- 
shutter  and  must  be  informed  somehow — narrates  Mor- 
daunt 's  history  to  the  Parkins  woman  who  knows  it  already. 
Cooke  furthermore  almost  revives  the  dead.  Fenwick  is 
once  referred  to  as  "dying."  Several  years  later  he  is 
pinned  to  a  tree  by  a  sword-thrust  through  the  middle  and 
is  left  drooping  and  seemingly  dead.  The  illustrator  of 
the  book  gave  him  a  most  thoroughly  dooming  wound,  as 
he  should  have  done  in  following  the  text,  but  again  the 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  95 

villain  comes  back  alive.  Each  of  these  reappearances  is  a 
distinct  shock  to  the  reader.  The  Arabic-speaking  Mor- 
daunt  and  his  Arab  servant  prove  that,  after  all,  the  war 
was  not  in  itself  sufficiently  romantic  for  Cooke,  who  sought 
in  the  Old  World  the  most  melodramatic  part  of  his  plot. 
Surry  owes  something  to  Henry  St.  John.  The  Mordaunt- 
Fenwick  and  Ralph-Foy  pairs  are  similar.  Parkins  is  of 
the  breed  of  Miss  Carne.  The  gloomy  world-traveled  Mor- 
daunt  inevitably  suggests  Byron  and  the  titular  hero  of 
Mrs.  Augusta  Evans  Wilson's  St.  Elmo.  The  behavior  of 
the  insane  wife  may  well  have  been  suggested  by  Great 
Expectations  as  hostile  critics  were  not  averse  to  pointing 
out.  George  Cary  Eggleston,  taking  up  Bagby's  criticism, 
already  referred  to,  said  of  Surry  that  its  author  indeed 
"had  the  pink  goggles,"  but  that  they  were  important  now 
to  give  the  sanity  and  the  perspective  of  history  to  recent 
events.  In  doing  this  he  felt  Cooke  to  be  without  parallel. 
Whether  or  not  this  praise  is  too  high,  Surry  was  above  all 
else  a  timely  book.  It  was  not  penned  with  the  care  ex- 
pected in  a  great  modern  historical  novel.  It  must,  how- 
ever, have  afforded  pleasant  reading  to  many  a  veteran ;  for 
it  showed  the  war  not  as  a  failure,  but  as  a  superb  adventure, 
the  very  participation  in  which  was  a  mark  of  honor.  Even 
to-day  it  is  an  agreeable  volume  for  Southerners  and  others 
who  are  interested  in  the  Civil  War,  like  a  stirring  tale, 
and  do  not  read  too  critically.  Upon  its  appearance  Surry 
had  an  excellent  sale.  It  was  published  in  February,  1866, 
and  by  the  end  of  1870  Cooke  had  received  from  it  over 
$2,313.  Smaller  royalties  continued.  Financially  this 
was  the  most  successful  of  his  novels.  The  interest  in  war 
stories  waned  with  great  rapidity,  and  no  one  of  Cooke's 
later  romances  secured  so  definite  a  hold  on  popular  ap- 
proval. 

Cooke  went  to  New  York  in  the  early  spring  of  1866. 


96  JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 


. . 


Saw  Gen.  Cooke,"  he  writes,  "and  was  received  with  the 
warmest  affection  by  him  and  Aunt  as  I  expected.  I  always 
felt  as  if  I  had  much  more  against  him  than  he  against 
me.  .  .  .  Duyckinck  was  a  good  friend  and  as  kind  as 
ever,  going  with  me  everywhere.  Was  at  Appleton's, 
Huntington's,  Scribner's,  etc.,  and  everywhere  courteously 
received — old  W.  H.  Appleton  assuring  me  he  was  greatly 
pleased  to  see  me.  .  .  .  Scribner  proposed  Wearing  of  the 
Gray — the  sort  of  book:  not  the  title,  which  he  wished 
afterwards  changed  to  Lee  and  His  Lieutenants  (a  title 
proposed  to  him  by  myself,  abandoned  by  me  as  unsuitable 
for  the  book;  and  then  Mr.  Pollard  adopted  the  name, 
publishing  with  Treat  &  Co.,  of  which  firm  Scribner  was  a 
member)."  In  view  of  this  account  of  his  reception  in  the 
North  it  is  somewhat  surprising  that  Cooke  should  say  of 
the  same  trip:  "I  can't  bear  the  Yankees:  like  them  less 
than  ever.  They  and  we  are  two  people."  It  should  be 
remembered,  however,  that  Cooke  was  writing  in  1866. 

About  this  time  Cooke  was  offered  by  Richardson  $2000 
for  a  work  on  the  ' '  heroic  women  of  the  South. ' '  The  idea 
was  abandoned,  however,  for  no  interesting  material  could 
be  assembled.  The  truth  was  that  the  women's  work, 
however  noble  and  valuable,  was  not  spectacular;  and  no 
vitally  interesting  portraits  could  be  drawn —  especially  by 
a  writer  of  Cooke 's  type  of  talent.  Worry  over  the  imprac- 
ticable ' '  Southern  Women ' '  and  a  contemplated  life  of  Lee, 
"with  some  other  private  affairs  which  took  up  much 
time, ' '  caused  the  compilation,  Wearing  of  the  Gray,  to  con- 
sume the  summer  and  autumn  of  1866. 

Wearing  of  the  Gray  was  brought  out  at  New  York  in 
1867  by  E.  B.  Treat  and  Company.  It  was  handsomely 
printed  and  was  illustrated  with  "portraits  engraved  on 
steel  from  photographs  taken  from  life"  and  with  "battle 
scenes  from  original  designs."     The  new  volume  "was 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  97 

made  up  largely  of  the  World,  News,  and  other  articles, 
written  in  1865-66,  others  from  the  Richmond  111.  News, 
etc.,  etc.,"  but  several  of  the  pieces — including  "To  Gettys- 
burg and  Back  Again,"  "A  Dash  at  Aldie,"  and  " General 
Pegram  on  the  Night  Before  His  Death" — had  not  been 
previously  published.  Wearing  of  the  Gray  bears  the  in- 
scription: "To  the  illustrious  memory  of  Major-General  J. 
E.  B,  Stuart,  'Flower  of  Cavaliers,'  This  Book  is  Dedicated 
by  an  old  member  of  his  Staff,  who  loved  him  living,  and 
mourns  him  dead."  The  forty-seven  component  papers 
were  classified  under  five  heads :  ' ' Personal  Portraits, "  "In 
the  Cavalry,"  "Outlines  from  the  Outpost,"  "Scout  Life," 
and  ' '  Latter  Days. ' '  A  picture  of  Stuart  was  chosen  as  the 
frontispiece  and  a  sketch  of  him  opens  the  list  of  personal 
portraits.  Cooke  aimed  "to  draw  these  'worthies'  rather 
as  they  lived  and  moved,  following  their  various  idiosyn- 
crasies, than  as  they  performed  their  official  duties  on  the 
public  stage.  ...  No  personage  is  spoken  of  with  whom 
the  writer  was  not  more  or  less  acquainted:  and  every 
trait  and  incident  set  down  was  either  observed  by  himself 
or  obtained  from  good  authority.  Invention  has  absolutely 
nothing  to  do  with  the  sketches:  the  writer  has  recorded 
his  recollections,  and  not  his  fancies."  As  a  staff-officer 
Cooke  had  a  superb  opportunity  for  observing  the  im- 
portant Confederate  figures  in  Virginia  and  these  portraits 
are  on  the  whole  an  entertaining  and  valuable  piece  of 
work.  A  reader  of  "Stuart"  feels  that  he  knows  that 
officer,  his  love  of  music,  color,  and  pretty  women,  his 
abhorrence  of  profanity  and  drinking,  his  thorough  im- 
perturbability, and  his  joy  in  the  face  of  danger.  One  joins 
Cooke  in  his  admiration  of  the  great  cavalryman  who  ac- 
complished tasks  which  none  of  his  fellows  could  compass, 
and  yet  refrained  from  repressing  his  individuality,  amus- 
ing himself  with  banjo  and  song  whether  the  more  puritan- 


98  JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

ical  of  his  associates  frowned  on  it  or  not.  "Jackson"  is  a 
good  short  portrait  condensed  from  the  Military  Biography. 
The  paper  on  Ashby,  praising  a  fine  horseman  whose  exam- 
ple lived  as  an  inspiration  after  his  death,  exhibits  well  one 
of  the  author's  chief  faults:  even  in  a  twelve-page  sketch 
several  details  are  stated  more  than  once.  Cooke  recounts 
many  interesting  anecdotes  about  the  leaders  and  quotes 
their  words.  The  "bold,  straightforward,  masculine,  and 
incisive"  Early  is  recorded  as  saying  to  his  surgeon  on 
Lee 's  surrender : ' '  Doctor,  I  wish  there  was  powder  enough 
in  the  center  of  the  earth  to  blow  it  to  atoms.  I  would 
apply  the  torch  with  the  greatest  pleasure. ' ' 

Of  all  his  army  service  Cooke  liked  best  the  days  when 
he  "followed  the  feather"  of  Stuart;  and  that  favorite 
general  figures  largely  in  the  cavalry  sketches.  "To  the 
cavalryman  belongs  the  fresh  life  of  the  forest — the  wan- 
dering existence  which  brings  back  the  days  of  old  romance. 
Do  you  wish  to  form  some  conception  of  the  life  of  that 
model  cavalryman  and  gentleman,  Don  Quixote?  To  do 
so,  you  have  only  to  'join  the  cavalry.'  Like  the  Don,  your 
cavalryman  goes  through  the  land  in  search  of  adventures, 
and  finds  many.  He  penetrates  retired  localities — odd,  un- 
known nooks — meeting  with  curious  characters  and  out-of- 
the-way  experiences,  which  would  make  the  fortune  of  a 
romance  writer.  Here,  far  away  from  the  rushing  world 
and  the  clash  of  arms,  he  finds  bright  faces,  and  is  wel- 
comed by  *  heaven's  last  best  gift' — for  woman  is  ever  the 
guardian  angel  of  the  soldier.  She  smiles  upon  him  when 
he  is  gloomy ;  feeds  him  when  he  is  hungry ;  and  it  is  often 
the  musical  laughter  of  a  girl  which  the  cavalryman  hears 
as  he  rides  on  musing — not  the  rattle  of  his  miserable  sabre ! 
Thus  romance,  sentiment,  and  poetry  meet  him  everywhere. 
And  is  he  fond  of  the  grotesque  ?  That  meets  him,  too,  in  a 
thousand  places.    Of  the  pathetic?    Ah!  that  salutes  him 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  99 

often  on  the  fierce  arena  of  war !  Thus,  living  a  fresh  life, 
full  of  vivid  emotions,  he  passes  his  days  and  nights  till  the 
fatal  bullet  comes — laughing,  fighting,  feasting,  starving,  to 
the  end."  Cooke  tells,  for  instance,  of  a  raid  on  a  deserted 
grocery  store  which  caused  Stuart  to  be  acclaimed  by  a 
previously  grumbling  army  as  first  of  the  world 's  soldiers ; 
he  tells  of  a  lady  who  spent  months  in  a  Federal  prison 
because  there  was  found  in  her  possession  a  joking  docu- 
ment signed  by  Stuart  making  her  an  honorary  staff  officer. 
With  such  material  the  author  was  an  adept. 

Uneven  as  it  is  in  quality,  Wearing  of  the  Gray  is  never- 
theless both  interesting  and  of  solid  value.  Cooke  felt  that 
he  was  not  only  entertaining  the  reader  of  his  day,  but  was 
recording  for  the  future.  In  "One  of  Stuart's  Escapes," 
he  says,  "Ah!  those  'romances  of  the  war'!  The  trifling 
species  will  come  first.  .  .  .  But  then  will  come  the  better 
order  of  things,  when  writers  like  Walter  Scott  will  con- 
scientiously collect  the  real  facts,  and  make  some  new 
'Waverley'  or  'Legend  of  Montrose'."  "For  these,  and 
not  for  the  former  class, ' '  Cooke  says  he  is  setting  down  his 
incidents.  A  pleasing  touch  is  given  by  the  author's  fre- 
quently addressing  the  unknown  persons  who  crossed  his 
path  in  the  war:  "If  the  fair  girl  living  in  the  handsome 
mansion  below  Mr.  Hamilton 's,  remembers  still  to  whom  she 
insisted  upon  presenting  nine  cups  of  coffee  with  every 
delicacy,  the  rebel  in  question  begs  to  assure  her  of  his  con- 
tinued gratitude  for  her  kindness."  Unfortunately  some 
of  the  papers  are  fiction  and  not  history.  "Longbow's 
Horse, ' '  for  instance,  concludes  with  a  reference  to  Colonel 
Surry  and  May  Beverley,  characters  in  Surry  of  Eagle's- 
Nest.  The  inclusion  of  already  published  articles  causes 
several  anecdotes  to  be  repeated,  as  in  the  overlapping 
' '  Mosby ' '  and  ' '  Mosby  's  Raid  into  Fairfax. ' '  The  separate 
origin  of  the  articles  results  also  in  a  style  of  unusual 


100         JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

redundancy.  Murat,  Rupert,  and  other  favorites  are  al- 
luded to  again  and  again  in  Cooke's  comparisons.  A  small 
but  unnecessary  flaw  is  the  use  of  "natale  solum,"  "gau- 
dium  certaminis, ' '  ' ' immedicabile  vulnus,"  and  " perdu," 
where  English  words  are  available.  Cooke  was  very  fond  of 
this  show  of  learning  and  kept  it  up  despite  the  disapproval 
of  critics  and  the  constant  typographical  errors  of  his  uni- 
lingual  printers.  His  camp  chimney  fell  flat  to  the  ground, 
whereupon  he  began  it  again,  "ab  ovo."  The  "ab  ovo" 
was  printed  as  " above,"  the  type-setter  and  many  readers 
doubtless  wondering  what  manner  of  rock-layer  Cooke  was. 
Following  the  completion  of  Wearing  of  the  Gray,  Cooke 
began  work  on  a  somewhat  similarly  organized  collection 
of  twelve  compositions  which  appeared  in  The  Old  Guard 
as  The  Battles  of  Virginia,  an  appropriate  title  inasmuch 
as  Chapter  I  deals  with  First  Manassas  and  Chapter  XII 
with  Lee's  retreat  and  surrender.  This  manuscript  was 
finished  April  19,  1867;  the  last  chapter  appeared  in  the 
magazine  in  February,  1868;  but  the  work  was  not  pub- 
lished as  a  volume  until  1870,  when  Carleton  printed  it  as 
Hammer  and  Rapier,  a  title  suggested  by  a  figure  in  the 
"Wilderness"  chapter.  Cooke  says  of  Grant's  assuming 
command  of  the  Federal  army :  ' '  The  rapier  had  been  tried 
for  three  long  years,  and  Lee,  that  great  swordsman,  had 
parried  every  lunge.  What  was  his  Federal  adversary  of 
the  huge  bulk  and  muscle  to  do  now,  in  these  last  days? 
One  course  alone  was  left  him — to  take  the  sledge-hammer 
in  both  hands,  and,  leaving  tricks  of  fence  aside,  advance 
straightforward,  and  smash  the  rapier  in  pieces,  blow  by 
blow,  shattering  the  arm  that  wielded  it,  to  the  shoulder 
blade."  "Honour  to  obstinate  resolve,  and  the  heart  that 
does  not  despair.  Grant  had  them,"  says  Cooke  of  the  plan 
of  a  continuous  aggressive;  and  with  regard  to  Grant's 
conduct  at  Appomattox  he  continues:  "The  Federal  Com- 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  101" 

mander  had  acted  throughout  all  with  the  generosity  of  a 
soldier  and  the  breeding  of  a  gentleman. ' '  Cooke  was  hon- 
est in  this  recognition  of  merit  in  an  opponent.  Even 
during  the  war  he  was  never  bitter  against  McClellan, 
Meade,  or  Grant,  just  as  in  peace  he  still  upon  every  occa- 
sion assailed  the  brutality  of  Sheridan  and  Pope.  Much  of 
Cooke's  military  service  was  in  the  cavalry,  and  in  this 
branch  the  superiority  of  the  hard-riding  Southerners  for 
the  first  two  years  was  unquestioned  even  in  the  North. 
That  he  was  anxious  to  award  honor  wherever  due  is 
evidenced,  however,  by  a  description  of  the  Northern  stand 
at  Port  Republic:  ''Three  times  the  Federal  artillery  was 
thus  lost  and  won,  in  spite  of  the  most  desperate  fighting. 
All  honor  to  courage  wherever  it  displays  itself,  under  the 
blue  coat  or  under  the  gray ;  and  the  Federal  forces  fought 
that  day  with  a  gallantry  that  was  superb.  They  died 
where  they  stood,  like  brave  men  and  true  soldiers — an 
enemy  records  that  and  salutes  them." 

Hammer  and  Rapier  shows  a  certain  knowledge  of  mili- 
tary tactics.  The  author  points  out  that  if  Virginia  should 
again  be  invaded  from  the  north  there  would  probably  be 
new  battles  of  Manassas,  the  Wilderness,  and  Cold  Harbor. 
The  twelve  sketches  largely  parallel  Cooke's  military  biog- 
raphies of  Jackson  and  Lee,  and  the  historical  portions  of 
Surry  and  Mohun.  For  the  battles,  however,  Hammer  and 
Rapier  has  the  superiority  of  being  stripped  of  fictitious 
and  superfluous  details.  The  following  account  of  Pickett's 
charge  is  far  more  effective  than  the  similar  but  more 
wordy  record  in  Mohun: 

"The  Virginians  of  Pickett  form  in  double  line,  just  in  the  edge 
of  the  wood  on  Seminary  Ridge — then  they  are  seen  to  move.  They 
advance  into  the  valley,  supported  by  Pettigrew  on  the  left,  and 
Wilcox  ready  to  follow  on  the  right.  So  the  division  goes,  into  that 
Valley  of  Death,  advancing  in  face  of  the  enemy's  guns  at  "common 


102         JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

time,"  as  the  troops  of  Ney  moved  under  the  Russian  artillery,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Dnieper. 

"The  two  armies  look  on,  holding  their  breath.  It  is  a  magnificent 
spectacle.  Old  soldiers,  hardened  in  the  fire  of  battle,  flush  and 
lean  forward  with  fiery  eyes.  Suddenly  the  Federal  artillery  opens 
all  its  thunders,  and  the  ranks  are  swept  from  end  to  end  by  round 
shot,  shell,  and  canister.  Bloody  gaps  are  seen,  but  the  men  close 
up;  the  line  advances  slowly,  as  before.  The  fire  redoubles;  all  the 
demons  of  hell  seem  howling,  roaring,  yelling,  screaming,  gibbering 
in  one  great  witch's  sabbat.  Through  the  attacking  column  tears 
a  storm  of  iron,  before  which  men  fall  in  heaps,  mangled,  bleeding, 
their  bodies  torn  to  pieces,  their  dying  hands  clutching  the  grass. 
The  survivors  close  up  the  ranks  and  go  on  steadily. 

"Virginia  is  not  poor  and  bare,  as  some  suppose  her.  She  is  rich 
beyond  royal  or  imperial  dreams — for  she  has  that  charge. 

"At  three  hundred  yards  from  the  slope,  the  real  conflict  bursts 
forth.  There  the  thunder  of  artillery  is  succeeded  by  the  crash  of 
musketry.  From  behind  their  stone  breastwork  the  Federal  infantry 
rise  and  pour  a  sudden  and  staggering  fire  into  the  assailants.  Before 
that  fire  the  troops  of  Pettigrew  melt  away.  It  sweeps  them  as  dry 
leaves  are  swept  by  the  wind.  Where  a  moment  before  was  a  line 
of  infantry,  is  now  a  mass  of  fugitives,  flying  wildly  before  the 
hurricane — the  brave  Pettigrew  falling  as  he  waves  his  sword  and 
attempts  to  rally  them. 

"The  Virginians  have  lost  the  flower  of  their  forces,  but  the  sur- 
vivors continue  to  advance.  In  face  of  the  concentrated  fire  of  the 
infantry  forming  the  Federal  centre,  they  ascend  the  slope,  rush 
headlong  at  the  breastworks;  storm  them;  strike  their  bayonets 
into  the  flying  Federals;  and  a  wild  cheer  rises,  making  the  blood 
leap  in  the  veins  of  a  hundred  thousand  men. 

"They  are  torn  to  pieces,  but  they  have  carried  the  works.  Alas! 
it  is  only  the  first  line.  Beyond,  other  earthworks  frown;  in  their 
faces  are  thrust  the  muzzles  of  muskets  which  spout  flame — the  new 
line,  too,  must  be  carried,  and  they  dash  at  it. 

"Then  is  seen  a  spectacle  which  will  long  be  remembered — Pickett's 
little  remnant  charging  the  whole  Federal  army.  They  charge,  and 
are  nearly  annihilated.  Every  step  death  meets  them.  Then  the 
enemy  close  in  on  the  flanks  of  the  little  band — no  supporters  are 
near — they  fight  bayonet  to  bayonet,  and  die. 

"When  the  torn  and  bleeding  remnant  fall  back  from  the  fatal 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  103 

hill,  pursued  by  yells,  shouts,  musket  balls,  cannon  shot,  they  present 
a  spectacle  which  would  be  piteous  if  it  were  not  sublime.  Of  the 
three  brigades,  a  few  scattered  battalions  only  return.  Where  are 
the  commanders?  The  brave  Garnett  killed;  the  gallant  Armistead 
mortally  wounded  as  he  leaped  his  horse  over  the  breastworks;  the 
fiery  Kemper  lying  maimed  for  life,  under  the  canister  whirling  over 
him.  Fourteen  field  officers  out  of  fifteen  are  stretched  dead  and 
dying  on  the  field.  Of  the  men,  three-fourths  are  dead  or  prisoners. 
"The  battle  of  Gettysburg  is  decided." 

The  day  he  finished  Hammer  and  Rapier  Cooke  '  '.got  the 
sequel  to  Surry  on  the  brain. "  "I  however  rec'd  a 
proposition  from  Slater  &  Co.,  of  the  Bait.  'Home  Journal* 
to  write  a  story  for  them,  and  agreed  to  do  so.  .  .  .  This 
led  to  the  writing  of  Monksden,  or  the  Fate  of  the  Calverts, 
which  was  commenced  in  June,  1867  (before  the  9th),  and 
finished  July  25, 1867.  Written  in  27  working  days  exactly. 
Revised  in  2. ' '  The  story  was  founded  on  the  old  ' '  Tragedy 
of  Hairston,',  which  had  appeared  in  Putnam's  Monthly  in 
1856,  and  was  composed  with  facility.  Cooke  sold  it  to 
Slater  for  $1300,  reserving  the  right  to  print  it  as  a  book 
after  five  years.  The  magazine  rights  were  later  disposed 
of  by  the  Home  Journal  to  the  Philadelphia  Saturday 
Night,  but  Monksden  never  appeared  as  a  volume. 

Still  another  work  intervened  between  Hammer  and  Ra- 
pier and  the  "sequel  to  Surry."  Before  the  completion  of 
Monksden,  Cooke  had  been  asked  by  W.  J.  McClellan  to 
write  a  novelette  for  his  Southern  Society,  another  Balti- 
more periodical.  Though  somewhat  fatigued  from  the  work 
on  Monksden,  he  wrote  Hilt  to  Hilt  between  August  8  and 
September  11, 1867.  This  he  thought  was  very  slow  compo- 
sition. "Jaded  by  work,  however,  and  the  hot  weather,  I 
could  not  go  to  it  con  amore."  For  the  manuscript  Cooke 
asked  and  received  $500.  Carleton  wished  to  buy  the  story 
from  Cooke,  but  the  Baltimore  editor  naturally  refused 


104         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

permission,  and  sold  it  himself  to  Carleton,  who  paid  Cooke 
for  revising  and  enlarging  it. 

Hilt  to  Hilt  appeared  as  a  book  in  1869.  The  scene  is  laid 
on  the  banks  of  the  Shenandoah  River  between  "Winchester 
and  the  Blue  Ridge.  This  territory  was  part  of  "Mosby's 
Confederacy, ' '  a  name  applied  to  the  portion  of  Virginia 
north  of  the  Rappahannock  and  along  the  lower  Shenan- 
doah, a  region  which  throughout  the  war  was  a  no-man's- 
land.  The  fictitious  Surry  is  on  a  "tour  of  duty"  from 
Lee's  army  to  Early's  and  takes  part  in  the  incidents  which 
he  works  up  in  1868  into  an  "episodical  memoir."  The 
book  lacks  the  large  figures  of  history,  the  battles,  the 
sweep,  but  it  has  essentially  the  plot  of  Surry.  The  two 
Arden  brothers  are  fighting  on  opposite  sides.  Ellen  Adair 
is,  by  the  machinations  of  the  jealous  villain,  Ratcliffe, 
estranged  from  her  lover,  Landon.  The  strain  of  foreign 
blood,  Basque  this  time,  is  found  in  Antoinette  Duvarnay. 
The  villains  are  at  length  overcome  and  a  happy  outcome  is 
provided  for  such  of  the  virtuous  as  are  not  gloriously  dead. 
Hilt  to  Hilt  is  notable  in  that  it  deals  with  Cooke's  home 
community.  Annie  Meadows  is  courted  and  won  by  the 
Confederate  Arden  at  "The  Briars,"  later  Cooke's  home. 
"Pagebrook,"  the  seat  of  the  father  of  his  future  wife,  is 
called  by  name.  The  village  of  Millwood  and  the  town  of 
Winchester  are  apostrophized.  In  his  prologue  Cooke  in- 
corporates some  adverse  Boston  criticism.  "I  had  supposed 
the  ms.  of  Surry  of  Eagle' s-N est  to  have  been  composed 
in  a  most  compact,  terse,  and  altogether  faultless  style; 
and  here  was  a  great  critic,  and  a  critic  in  Boston,  which 
was  worse  still,  declaring  that  I  was  florid  and  exaggerated ! 
What  to  do?  ...  I  could  only  resolve  that,  in  future, 
I  would  never  be  florid  or  exaggerated  any  more."  He 
asserts  the  substantial  truthfulness  to  actuality  of  the  inci- 
dents in  Hilt  to  Hilt,  remarks  that  from  fear  of  being  called 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  105 

a  "  sensation- writer '  \  he  leaves  out  some  of  the  more  excit- 
ing details;  states,  in  fine,  that  he  is  aiming  to  "tell  a  plain 
and  unadorned  story.' '  It  is  nevertheless  difficult  to  see 
how  he  can  have  been  serious  in  this  pretension,  for  in 
incident  and  in  style  Hilt  to  Hilt  is  as  melodramatic  as  can 
well  be  imagined.    What  else  could  be  said  of  this  selection  ? 

"  'Let  me  finish.  For  the  last  three  days  his  infatuation  has 
become  a  species  of  madness.  He  has  repulsed,  insulted,  spurned, 
put  his  heel  upon  me!  I  am  no  longer  anything  but  the  wretched 
slave  of  his  caprice!  He  has  made  nothing  of  telling  me  that  I 
am  disgusting  in  his  eyes.  He  has  dared  to  use  a  term  in  addressing 
me  that  I  will  not  repeat!  Yes,  this  man,  to  whom  I  have  sacri- 
ficed everything, — for  whom  I  have  lost  name  and  fame,  and  all 
that  a  woman  values, — this  base,  cowardly  wretch,  who  has  lied  and 
tricked  and  betrayed  others  for  so  long,  has  now  insulted,  outraged, 
and  betrayed  me. 

"  'He  has  betrayed  me,'  continued  the  speaker  with  flaming  eyes ; 
'but  woe  to  him!  He  has  not  counted  on  the  Basque  blood  of  the 
Duvarnays!  I  have  but  one  aim, — to  crush  him!  And  now,  per- 
haps, you  understand  why  I  have  come  hither,  Captain  Landon. 
I  come  to  say,  you  have  only  to  follow  me  to  surprise  and  destroy 
the  bitterest  enemy  you  have  in  the  world!  I  will  lead  you  straight 
to  him;  will  deliver  him  into  your  hands,  asking  one  thing  only — 
that  you  will  allow  me  to  be  present  when  you  bury  your  sword  in 
his  cowardly  heart!'" 

Mohun;  or  The  Last  Days  of  Lee  and  His  Paladins,  the 
sequel  to  Surry  of  Eagle' s-N est,  was  begun  in  January  and 
was  finished  about  the  middle  of  April,  1868.  "It  took 
three  months  of  solid  work,"  said  the  author.  "I  worked 
harder  on  this  than  on  any  book  I  have  ever  written;  and 
I  think  it  more  compact,  and  durable."  Mohun  was  ac- 
cepted by  F.  J.  Huntington  and  was  published  promptly. 
It  requires  no  detailed  comment  for  its  merits  and  de- 
fects are  those  of  Surry.  Personal  anecdotes,  history,  and 
terroristic  fiction  are  again  offered  in  combination.  The 
titular  hero  is  a  Confederate  general  who  believes  himself  to 


106         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

be  a  married  man  and  a  murderer,  but  finds  at  the  ap- 
pointed time  that  he  is  neither.  The  beautiful  evil  woman, 
the  hidden  identity,  the  love  of  the  same  woman,  and  other 
of  Cooke's  relished  characters  and  devices  are  here  re- 
peated. The  leading  villain  is  known  first  as  Darke,  then  as 
Mortimer,  and  finally  as  Davenant.  Some  expert  spies,  an 
attempted  poisoning,  a  negro  sorceress,  numerous  melodra- 
matic adventures — all  these  are  made  use  of  and  the 
expected  quota  of  love  affairs  is  not  omitted.  Some  of  the 
characters  of  Surry  reappear.  The  plot  further  involves 
ante-bellum  trials  and  family  altercations,  and  is  very  com- 
plex— to  outline  it  here  is  unnecessary.  The  greatest 
value  of  the  work  lies  in  its  depiction  of  the  dogged  deter- 
mination of  the  lessening  band  of  " Lee's  Miserables"1  as 
they  faced  defeat,  and  in  the  admirable  representation  of 
the  civilian  classes  in  Richmond:  the  colonel  awaiting  a 
brigadiership  before  beginning  to  fight,  the  food  speculators 
and  others  laying  the  financial  foundations  for  a  newer 
degraded  aristocracy  while  the  finest  sons  of  the  Old  Do- 
minion were  sacrificing  their  lives  as  well  as  their  wealth. 
It  was  a  pity  to  waste  the  seed-corn  of  the  race,  thought 
Cooke  and  the  best  Virginians,  but  why  should  it  be  saved 
if  there  would  be  no  sacred  Southern  soil  where  it  might 
flourish  ?  The  style  of  the  book  is  facile  and  not  uniform  in 
texture.  It  sometimes  has  a  tinge  of  the  yellow-back ;  but 
in  places,  as  in  the  invocation  to  the  field  of  Gettysburg, 
exhibits  an  ornate  splendor.  To  one  who  reads  Cooke's 
works  in  their  chronological  order,  a  large  portion  of  the 
military  matter  is  now  familiar,  and  the  lack  of  variety  in 
expression  begins  to  pall.  Again  and  again  are  found  such 
phrases  as  ' ■  hilt  to  hilt ' '  and  '  *  hammer  and  rapier, ' '  to  cite 

i  Many  of  Lee's  men  applied  to  themselves  the  humorously  mis- 
pronounced title  of  Victor  Hugo's  Les  Miserables,  a  novel  which, 
according  to  Cooke,  was  very  popular  among  the  Confederate  soldiers. 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  107 

only  those  figures  which  give  names  to  books.  Once  or 
twice  Cooke  forgot  his  role  of  historian  and  spoke  out  in 
the  present.  He  meant  it  from  his  heart  when  he  inserted 
an  appeal  to  the  states  carved  from  the  territory  ceded  by 
Virginia  to  the  federal  government:  "In  February,  1868, 
when  these  lines  are  written,  black  hands  have  got  Virginia 
by  the  throat,  and  she  is  suffocating — Messieurs  of  the  great 
Northwest,  she  gave  you  being,  and  suckled  you !  Are  you 
going  to  see  her  strangled  before  your  very  eyes  V1 

As  early  as  1866  Cooke  had  given  thought  to  writing  a 
life  of  Robert  E.  Lee.  A  letter  to  the  general  elicited  a 
reply  which  he  did  not  consider  enthusiastic,  so  he  aban- 
doned the  project.  Lee's  letter,  however,  as  Cooke  later 
concluded,  indicated  no  more  objection  than  would  have 
been  voiced  by  any  modest  man.  At  all  events,  immediately 
upon  the  death  of  the  great  soldier  on  October  12,  1870, 
D.  Appleton  and  Company  offered  Cooke  $1500  for  a  biog- 
raphy, and  he  accepted  the  commission.  Before  the  end  of 
October  he  had  begun  to  write,  and  finished  his  task  in 
forty-five  working  days.  He  mailed  the  last  of  the  manu- 
script on  January  19,  1871,  the  significance  of  the  date  as 
Lee's  birthday  apparently  not  occurring  to  him,  for  he  did 
not  record  it  in  his  diary. 

The  Life  of  General  Robert  E.  Lee  is,  in  its  portraits, 
illustrations,  and  maps,  and  its  type  and  binding,  a  fitting 
companion  to  the  Stonewall  Jackson.  In  method  and  style 
the  two  biographies  are  so  nearly  identical  that  the  second 
calls  for  no  extended  comment.  It  is  a  narrative  of  Lee's 
campaigns  in  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania — 
almost  no  attention  whatever  is  paid  to  the  years  before 
1861  or  after  1865.  For  battles  and  other  national  events 
one  can  have  recourse  to  a  history;  a  biography  should  re- 
veal at  least  a  few  personal  idiosyncrasies.  There  is  always 
great  curiosity  over  the  youth  and  the  old  age  of  a  genius 


108         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

or  a  hero,  and  Lee  was  both.  In  Cooke's  Life  the  great  gen- 
eral is,  at  the  close  of  five  hundred  pages,  still  but  a  distant 
figure  passing  on  horseback.  The  military  leader  may  have 
been  revealed ;  the  man  is  largely  unknown.  In  such  matters 
as  he  does  admit,  Cooke  distributes  emphasis  rather  poorly. 
Lee's  four  years  at  West  Point  are  dismissed  in  a  line,  while 
a  chapter  is  devoted  to  his  visit  to  the  death-bed  of  the 
Episcopalian  bishop,  William  Meade.  It  must  be  borne  in 
mind,  however,  that  Cooke  produced  this  book  rapidly  to 
meet  a  sudden  popular  demand,  and  made  use  of  only  such 
facts  as  he  knew  or  could  discover  easily.  He  thoroughly 
realized  the  limitations  of  the  work.  For  instance,  he  did 
not  dwell  upon  General  Lee's  presidency  of  Washington 
College,  but  deliberately  left  the  subject  uto  a  more  im- 
portant authority." 

On  his  experiences  in  the  Civil  War,  Cooke  based  seven 
books,  of  which  Lee  was  the  last.  In  producing  these  works 
his  immediate  surroundings  were  happy,  but  his  outlook 
was  depressing.  He  saw  his  beloved  Virginia  in  the  toils  of 
a  mismanaged  reconstruction,  the  prey  of  the  blacks;  and 
he  thought  he  detected  an  approaching  schism  between  the 
different  classes  of  whites.  He  refers  frequently  to  writing 
his  fiction  as  a  relief  from  the  world  about  him — a  circum- 
stance which  may  account  in  part  for  his  search  for  the 
bizarre.  The  true  tragedy  of  this  period  of  his  life  was, 
however,  neither  the  fall  of  the  Confederacy  nor  the  humil- 
iation attendant  upon  Reconstruction.  It  seems  almost  a 
loss  to  the  world  that  the  young  captain  of  artillery,  an 
already  famous  novelist,  should  have  written  his  biogra- 
phies without  regard  to  style  or  sufficient  data,  and  above 
all  should  have  vitiated  notes  of  the  utmost  value  by  blend- 
ing with  them  an  outworn  strain  of  fiction.  What  an 
opportunity  he  lost!  How  famous  he  might  have  become 
as  the  only  writer  of  note  who  served  from  First  Manassas 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  109 

to  Appomattox  and  set  down  with  accuracy  and  brilliancy 
the  little  as  well  as  the  large  aspects  of  the  great  struggle ! 
Such  a  work — alas  unwritten! — would  have  been  a  classic 
for  the  twentieth  century. 

The  reason  for  Cooke's  apparent  failure  to  make  the  most 
of  his  material  is  suggested  by  a  conversation  in  which  he 
outlined  to  Eggleston  his  attitude  toward  war : 

"  'I  wasn't  born  to  be  a  soldier,'  he  said  ...  in  after  years.  'Of 
course  I  can  stand  bullets  and  shells  and  all  that,  without  flinching, 
just  as  any  man  must  if  he  has  any  manhood  in  him,  and  as  for 
hardships  and  starvation,  why,  a  man  who  has  self-control  can 
endure  them  when  duty  demands  it,  but  I  never  liked  the  business 
of  war.  Gold  lace  on  my  coat  always  made  me  feel  as  if  I  were  a 
child  tricked  out  in  red  and  yellow  calico  with  turkey-feathers  in 
my  headgear  to  add  to  the  gorgeousness.  There  is  nothing  intel- 
lectual about  fighting.  It  is  fit  work  for  brutes  and  brutish  men. 
And  in  modern  war,  where  men  are  organized  in  masses  and  con- 
verted into  insensate  machines,  there  is  really  nothing  heroic  or 
romantic  or  in  any  way  calculated  to  appeal  to  the  imagination ! ' " 

Cooke,  in  fine,  was  never  at  heart  a  soldier.  He  was  a 
humanitarian,  a  sentimentalist,  a  romancer,  and  a  demo- 
crat. It  was  only  natural  that  such  a  man  should  have 
idealized  his  Civil  War  stories,  even  at  a  loss  of  the  flavor 
of  reality. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   PROBLEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION— WRITER   AND 
FARMER 

John  Esten  Cooke  was  married  on  September  18,  1867, 
to  Miss  Mary  Francis  Page,  daughter  of  Dr.  Robert  Page 
of  " Saratoga,"  Clarke  County,  Virginia.  The  ceremony 
was  performed  by  the  Reverend  Joseph  Jones  in  Christ 
(Episcopal)  Church  at  Millwood.  Cooke  had  known  Miss 
Page  for  a  number  of  years.  In  his  diary  kept  in  the  fifties 
he  had  mentioned  her  casually  as  a  fellow-guest  at  a  moun- 
tain summer-resort.  Moreover,  in  a  contemporaneous  news- 
paper account  of  an  ante-bellum  tournament  he  had  praised 
her  most  highly.  A  deep  or  permanent  interest  in  Miss 
Page  cannot,  however,  be  inferred  from  this  slight  evi- 
dence ;  for  she  had  been  crowned  queen  of  love  and  beauty, 
and  the  tribute  to  her — while  more  glowing  than  that 
bestowed  on  her  maids  of  honor — was  no  greater  than 
custom  demanded  upon  such  an  occasion.  The  possibility 
that  Cooke  may  have  had  personal  interest  back  of  his 
praise  of  the  youthful  "queen,"  or  that  she  admired  him, 
is,  nevertheless,  suggested  by  a  rather  unusual  document 
of  about  the  same  period.  Sallie  Goodrich,  one  of  Miss 
Page's  schoolmates,  was  required  to  write  a  composition  in 
French,  and  chose  as  the  subject  of  the  neatly  written  yet 
somewhat  ungrammatical  paper  an  account  of  the  supposed 
marriage  of  Miss  Page  to  the  young  novelist,  John  Esten 
Cooke.  This  incident  happened  ten  years  before  the  Cooke- 
Page  wedding,  and  cannot  be  regarded  as  of  very  serious 

110 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     111 

import,  for  during  the  war  the  author-soldier  was  fancy- 
free,  and  after  the  war  his  love  for  Miss  Page  appears  to 
have  been  altogether  as  new  as  it  was  deep  and  whole- 
hearted. He  refers  to  her  as  the  anchor  which  held  him  to 
Virginia  when,  in  the  disappointment  of  defeat,  he  had 
determined  on  leaving  the  state  and  nation.  A  glimpse  of 
the  zealous  lover  may  be  had  from  the  article  "I  Go  To 
See  John  Esten  Cooke"  which  G.  W.  Bagby  wrote  and  pub- 
lished in  his  Orange  Native  Virginian.  Cooke's  diary,  in- 
deed, reveals  the  fact  that  he  frequently  visited  "  Sara- 
toga," and  Bagby  good-naturedly  states  that  even  the  guest 
was  neglected  by  the  novelist  who  hurried  away  on  horse- 
back to  keep  a  previous  engagement  with  his  lady. 

Cooke  not  only  married  a  charming  woman,  but  he  mar- 
ried into  a  family  as  notable  as  his  own.  Perhaps  for  the 
very  reason  that  his  social  standing  was  unquestioned  and 
soundly  based,  he  was  never  a  snob.  He  was  a  typical  rep- 
resentative of  the  saner  democratic  element  in  the  mid- 
nineteenth  century  aristocracy  of  Virginia.  An  illustration 
of  his  family's  attitude  toward  snobbery  may  be  found  in 
Cooke 's  reaction  to  a  society  flurry  in  Richmond  during  the 
war.  A  volunteer  committee  had  spent  time  and  money  in 
preparing  to  stage  an  elaborate  tableau  performance  for 
war  relief.     Cooke's  sister  Mary,  Mrs.  Steger,  wrote  him 

about  it:  "The  Misses  ,  and  one  or  two  other 

fashionable  young  ladies,  who  had  promised  to  take  part  in 
the  performance,  have  declined ;  they  gave  as  their  excuse, 

they  heard  the were  not  fashionable." 

Mrs.  Steger  explained  that  the  family — with  whose  repre- 
sentative the  ladies  of  fashion  would  not  appear  on  the  stage 
— was  thoroughly  estimable,  and  begged  her  brother  to  come 
if  possible  and  help  save  the  occasion.  The  sum  total  of 
such  unsocial  acts  on  the  part  of  a  set  of  small-brained  girls 
was,  as  Cooke  sorrowfully  knew,  of  indirect  aid  to  the 


112         JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

Federal  soldiers  in  precipitating  the  fall  of  the  Confeder- 
acy. Such  types  he  held  in  contempt  and  flayed  them  in 
Mohun  along  with  the  profiteer  and  the  colonel  who  was 
waiting  to  be  made  a  general  before  drawing  his  sword. 
Just  as  Cooke  never  made  ignoble  use  of  his  distinguished 
birth,  he  never  failed,  on  the  other  hand,  to  feel  in  it  a 
restrained  pride.  He  was  pleased  that  his  sister  Sal,  Mrs. 
Duval,  was  "  regarded  as  the  first  person  in  New  Kent. 
Somehow  we  stand  high  wherever  we  go.  It  is  singular, 
isn't  it?"  He  was  fond  of  recalling  George  Cary  Eggle- 
ston's  "joke":  "Somebody  asked  somebody  else  who  [sic] 
J.  Esten  Cooke  married.  The  reply  was  Miss  Page — a  big 
connection — he  had  married  into  all  the  good  families  he 
didn  't  belong  to  himself. ' ' 

Cooke's  wedding  was  followed  by  a  "tour"  which  ex- 
tended "East  and  North"  as  far  as  Quebec  and  Niagara 
Falls.  Upon  his  return  to  Virginia  he  settled  with  his 
bride  at  her  father's  home,  where  he  continued  his  profes- 
sion of  writing.  The  stay  at  "Saratoga"  was  altogether 
pleasant.  The  novelist  relieved  the  routine  of  composition 
by  occasional  work  in  the  garden.  He  often  went  fishing, 
and  caught,  he  records,  as  many  as  twenty  fish  on  one  trip. 
He  "bathed  in  the  run  under  the  willow,"  used  "Pride  of 
Virginia"  tobacco,  and  would  sit  "under  the  lindens  smok- 
ing" as  he  watched  the  "magnificent  moon  rise  over  the 
mountains. ' '  There  is  no  indication  that  even  a  shadow  of 
disagreement  ever  passed  between  him  and  the  Pages,  and 
he  looked  forward  with  grief  to  the  necessity  of  leaving  a 
home  made  doubly  dear  by  the  genial  comradeship  of  his 
wife's  family  and  the  memories  of  his  own  early  married 
days.  But  Cooke  was  a  man  of  position,  and  all  the  habits 
of  society  pointed  to  the  appropriateness  of  his  being  estab- 
lished in  a  house  of  his  own.  The  place  selected  for  his 
residence  was   a  Page   estate  known  as  "The  Briars." 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     113 

Thither  Cooke  often  journeyed  to  superintend  improve- 
ments, and  on  September  12,  1869,  he  moved  to  "The 
Briars, ' '  which  became  his  home  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

To  John  Esten  Cooke  and  Mary  Francis  Page  there 
were  born  three  children.  Before  the  removal  from  "Sara- 
toga" an  only  daughter,  Susan  Randolph,  had  been  born. 
"Yesterday  morning  [i.  e.,  on  July  11,  1868]  about  six 
o  'clock  Mary 's  daughter  was  born — a  fine  healthy  child.  .  .  . 
Mary  is  astonishingly  well  and  gay — it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand that  she  is  unwell."  The  diary  recalls  many  of 
Susie's  baby  antics,  the  father  noting,  for  instance,  that 
she  wept  when  the  water  touched  her  in  the  christening 
ceremony.  Cooke  likewise  records  the  birth  of  Edmund 
Pendleton,  his  first  son:  "This  morning  [May  23,  1870]  at 
a  quarter  before  eight  o'clock  Mary  gave  birth  to  what 
Cousin  Lucy  Mann  says  is  a  'fine  boy.'  This  is  written  a 
few  minutes  afterwards.  A  lovely  morning. "  Cooke's  last 
child  was  born  in  1874:  "At  about  3  in  the  morning, 
October  12,  was  born  our  third  child,  a  fine  boy  who  is  to 
be  called  Robert  Powel  Page  in  full  after  Dr.  P.  and  Powel. 
Mary  and  the  baby  are  quite  well." 

Cooke  thus,  in  a  home  of  his  own  and  surrounded  by 
his  family,  began  to  carry  forward  his  career  as  a  writer 
under  conditions  which  were  not  only  dear  to  his  heart  but 
had  long  been  cherished  as  ideal  before  there  was  any 
promise  of  their  fulfilment.  On  the  last  day  of  the  year 
1848  he  had  written  to  his  brother  Philip :  "You  don't  know 
what  a  happy  life  you  lead,  no  work — writing  tales  is  not 
work,  more  fun  than  anything  else — a  sweet  wife,  fine  chil- 
dren and  nothing  to  do  but  amuse  yourself."  Although 
Cooke  directed,  perhaps  in  the  mood  of  a  moment,  that  his 
pre-war  diary  be  destroyed,  he  declared  on  the  contrary  in 
his  new  one  that  he  was  writing  it  for  his  children  when 
they  should  grow  up.    The  pages  abound  in  such  entries  as 


114         JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

the  following:  "God  bless  my  dear  one  and  my  little  one: 
I  wonder  if  anybody  will  laugh  at  that  if  they  poach  on  my 
diary!"  The  entries  normally  close  with  the  letters  "D. 
N.  B.,"  a  hurried  abbreviation  of  "Dieu  nous  benisse,"  the 
sincere  prayer  of  the  husband  and  father. 

At  "The  Briars"  Cooke  became,  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life,  a  gardener  and  farmer.  He  was  an  adept  in  the 
seed-catalogue  nomenclature  of  his  day,  strove  for  a  large 
variety  of  vegetables  for  his  kitchen-garden,  and  experi- 
enced an  amateur's  satisfaction  in  producing  a  certain  vege- 
table before  any  of  the  neighbors.  He  gave  individuality 
to  his  labors  and  expressed  his  fatherly  pride  by  planting 
lettuce  seed  in  such  a  way  that,  upon  coming  up,  they 
would  spell  the  name  SUSIE.  "Politics,  and  city  and 
public  life  seem  to  me  the  merest  farces.  Literature  and 
gardening  are  the  really  philosophic  pursuits  of  life." 
Cooke  complained  that  gardening  even  disputed  with  writ- 
ing the  command  of  his  major  interest.  In  an  opposite 
mood,  he  went  so  far  as  to  revolve  in  his  mind  the  idea  of 
selling  his  produce  in  the  Baltimore  and  Alexandria  mar- 
kets; but  wisely  concluded  that  he  lacked  the  "energy,  in- 
dustry and  system  requisite  for  success  in  any  such  under- 
taking." He  was  also  ambitious  of  becoming  a  fruit  and 
grape  grower.  By  experiments  on  his  large  farm  he 
reached  conclusions  about  the  relative  efficacy  of  manure 
and  artificial  fertilizer  as  crop  producers.  On  the  whole, 
however,  he  showed  a  lack  of  adaptability  to  his  new  envi- 
ronment. For  many  years  he  was  a  victim  of  the  mistakes 
common  to  the  inexperienced  manager  or  to  those  who 
regard  farming  as  an  unskilled  calling.  To  persons  who 
have  seen  the  havoc  one  storm  may  produce,  or  who  know 
something  of  animal  diseases  and  animal  enemies,  a  few 
sentences  like  the  following  are  enough  to  reveal  Cooke  as, 
at  best,  a  "book-farmer":    "Putting  out  sheep  is  an  excel- 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     115 

lent  business.  It  is  not  difficult  to  make  100  per  cent  on 
the  investment  without  chance  of  loss,  and  difficult  to  make 
less  than  fifty!" 

Cooke's  profits  from  writing  fortunately  prevented  his 
farming  ventures  from  shipwrecking  him;  and  he  was  en- 
abled from  the  start  to  go  forward  with  his  plans  for 
beautifying  his  house  and  grounds.  "By  care  and  indus- 
try, with  a  little  time,"  he  wrote,  "  'The  Briars'  may  be 
made  a  neat,  attractive  and  happy-looking  home."  In  his 
improvements  the  author  was  not  only  the  landscape  artist, 
but  did  most  of  the  work.  He  planted  new  shrubs  and 
flowers,  pruned  trees,  kept  in  repair  the  wall  around  the 
lawn,  and  with  his  own  hands  built  rustic  outdoor  seats. 

In  his  attractive  home  Cooke,  hospitable  by  taste  and 
heredity,  was  from  the  start  a  lavish  entertainer.  Day 
after  day  the  names  of  numerous  guests  are  recorded  in 
his  diary.  Unfortunately,  he  thought  it  part  of  the  code  of 
a  gentleman  never  to  work  while  visitors  were  beneath  his 
roof.  He  often  regretted  their  curtailment  of  his  working 
hours,  but  never  complained.  In  reality  he  enjoyed  every 
minute  of  their  stay  and  seemed  at  heart  to  welcome  the 
excuse  for  putting  aside  his  pen.  _Still,  one  is  suspicious  of 
a  shade  of  irony  when  he  recalls  that  forty-five  visitors  had 
slept  at  "The  Briars"  during  his  first  year  there,  some  of 
them  for  weeks.  "  'The  Briars'  seems  to  have  been  effec- 
tually ■  warmed '  since  our  arrival ! ' '  But  when  all  has  been 
said,  Cooke  was  almost  if  not  quite  as  much  of  a  visitor 
as  an  entertainer.  He  dined  abroad  often,  sometimes  day 
after  day,  at  "The  Glen,"  "Pagebrook,"  and  a  dozen 
other  fancifully  named  old  family  seats,  paid  an  annual 
visit  of  several  weeks  to  "Saratoga,"  and  long  occasional 
visits  to  "Cassilis,"  "The  Farm,"  and  elsewhere.  He  at- 
tended numerous  parties  and  sometimes  gave  one,  as  he 
records  on  September  10,  1870:  "Last  night  we  had  some- 


116         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

thing  like  a  regular  party — about  60  in  all — danced  to  two 
fiddles  in  the  old  kitchen,  and  had  a  very  handsome  supper 
table  ...  a  young  party  ...  an  agreeable  evening — 
or  rather  night — broke  up  at  3  o'clock."  As  well  as  to 
neighborhood  guests  Cooke  was  ambitious  of  extending  the 
hospitality  of  "The  Briars"  to  contemporary  writers  and 
publishers.  Among  his  preserved  papers  are  perhaps  a 
dozen  letters  thanking  him  for  invitations,  and  assuring  him 
of  acceptance  should  anything  ever  enable  the  writer  to 
visit  the  neighborhood.  Some  of  these  invitations  went  to 
persons  whom  the  hospitable  Southerner  knew  but  slightly ; 
yet  an  acceptance  was  not  altogether  unusual.  George  Cary 
Eggleston,  fellow  Confederate  veteran,  author,  and  editor 
of  Hearth  and  Home,  was  a  pleased  guest  who  often  wrote 
of  Cooke's  novels  or  of  the  interesting  Virginian  himself. 
In  a  brief  sketch  entitled  ' '  About  the  Briars, ' '  Eggleston 
gives  an  entertaining  account  of  Cooke's  home.  "Strangest 
of  all  is  the  name  of  the  hospitable  mansion  in  which  these 
words  are  written.  It  stands  on  a  grassy  knoll  in  the  midst 
of  the  dream-like  beauty  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  As  one 
looks  out  from  its  wide-open  portal,  the  Blue  Ridge  on  the 
one  hand,  the  Alleghanies  on  the  other,  with  the  'Three 
Sisters'  in  front,  inclose  a  very  fairy-land  of  peaceful  love- 
liness, whose  people — all  akin  to  each  other,  of  course — 
are  just  such  delightful  neighbors  as  one  would  want  to  live 
among  forever.  The  place  itself  is  a  fit  center  to  the  land- 
scape, and  its  master  and  mistress  are  a  part  of  the  place. 
The  mansion,  with  its  surrounding  acres,  is  called  'The 
Briars,'  despite  the  peacefulness  of  its  ways  and  the  won- 
derful pleasantness  of  all  its  paths.  Its  name  is  a  misnomer, 
of  course,  and  yet  we  would  not  have  it  changed  on  any 
terms.  The  contrast  between  the  homestead's  thorny  name 
and  the  thornless  character  of  its  life  is  a  constant  delight. 
Its  master  is  a  writer  of  books  which  everybody  loves  to 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     117 

read.  He  has  a  delightful  habit  of  seeing  the  better  side  of 
everything,  and  reflecting  something  of  his  own  geniality 
upon  all  the  men  and  things  with  which  he  comes  in  con- 
tact. He  thinks  well  of  the  world,  and  when  he  talks  or 
writes  of  its  people  they  really  seem  better  even  than  they 
think  themselves.  He  is  in  the  garden  at  this  moment  gath- 
ering tomatoes  and  cucumbers  for  dinner,  and  they  are 
sure  to  come  to  the  house  looking  the  better  for  their 
passing  through  his  hands.  Briars  couldn't  grow  under 
his  eyes  if  they  would.  As  he  looked  at  them  they  would 
certainly  shed  their  thorns  and  put  forth  flowers  instead." 
Among  numerous  praises  of  autumn  scenes  Cooke  found 
occasion  to  set  down  an  approval  of  his  home  as  it  appeared 
in  spring:  "Everything  around  'The  Briars'  is  now  green 
and  flourishing  and  beautiful — the  grass  plot  like  emerald, 
but  starred  with  dandelions,  the  ashes  putting  forth  their 
light  tender  green,  the  redbuds  in  full  blossom,  the  wheat 
fields  of  deep  rich  green  and  lovely  when  the  sun  is  on  them 
— all  bright  and  cheerful."  So  much  for  the  physical  side. 
The  novelist's  life  at  "The  Briars"  had,  however,  a  somber 
aspect  which  grew  partly  out  of  his  inability  as  a  manager 
and  partly  out  of  a  naturally  slow  adaptability  to  the  new 
issues  of  life  in  the  Reconstruction  period. 

Cooke,  as  has  been  hinted,  experienced  his  share  of  the 
post-bellum  gloom  natural  to  an  ex-Confederate  officer.  He 
saw  a  civilization  in  ruins  and  amid  the  ruins  could  see  at 
first  no  quick  seeds  of  hope  which  he  felt  might  later 
develop  along  lines  he  would  think  desirable.  The  intel- 
lectual class  in  the  South  was  especially  hard  hit  by  the 
result  of  the  war.  While  the  farmer  for  the  most  part  still 
owned  his  land  or  portions  of  it,  the  writer — in  many  cases 
before  the  war  already  accustomed  to  live  up  to  or  beyond 
his  earning  power — found  his  familiar  periodicals  defunct 
or  impoverished  and  his  reading  public  generally  too  poor 


118         JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

to  buy  books.  Authors  may  also  have  well  felt  a  certain 
chagrin  upon  realizing  that  the  war 's  inevitability  had  been 
partly  due  to  their  attitude.  The  ante-bellum  Southern 
writer  had  not  yet  learned  that  books  like  Uncle  Tom*s 
Cabin,  irrespective  of  their  accuracy,  could  not  be  treated 
with  contempt,  but  demanded  a  forceful  reasoned  answer 
before  the  tribunal  of  an  interested  world.  Southern  men 
of  letters  had  offered  little  or  no  help  to  the  Southern  pub- 
licists in  solving  the  problems  of  the  day.  Some  writers, 
indeed,  upheld  slavery,  but  in  terms  too  exaggerated  to 
excite  respect.  Others,  like  Cooke — who,  if  not  actually 
opposed  to  slavery,  was  at  least  indifferent  to  its  continu- 
ance— seemed  to  seek,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  in  an 
idealized  past  a  refuge  from  the  fermenting  world  about 
them.  After  the  war  many  of  these  writers  realized  keenly 
their  mistake.  Physically  the  South  was  prostrate :  it  was 
a  duty  to  change  tactics  and  defend  her  honor.  The 
struggle  of  arms  was  over,  but  upon  the  Southern  writer 
lay  the  solemn  obligation  of  upholding  before  posterity  the 
ideals  of  the  Confederacy.  Expressions  of  this  view  were 
numerous,  and  a  self-dedication  to  this  purpose  was  often 
urged  upon  Cooke  by  Beauregard,  P.  M.  B.  Young,  and 
others.  To  thinking  people  Southern  writers  have  justified 
the  Southern  attitude,  but  much  of  the  work  has  been 
done  by  authors  who  have  begun  their  careers  since  1865. 
The  impoverished  professional  writer  of  the  old  regime, 
as  William  Gilmore  Simms  declared  in  a  review  of  one  of 
Cooke's  novels,  was  unfortunately  not  always  wholly  free 
in  the  late  sixties  to  write  what  he  wished.  He  had  of 
necessity  to  write  whatever  would  bring  the  most  money 
quickly.  Timrod's  despair,  Hayne's  relative  poverty,  and 
Lanier's  noble  struggle  are  familiar  to  all  students  of 
American  literature.  Cooke  presents  a  somewhat  different 
case  financially,  for  he  produced  a  better-paying  type  of 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     119 

composition,  was  unmarried  in  the  worst  years,  and  fur- 
thermore acquired  by  marrying  Miss  Page  a  valuable  farm. 
While  he  thus  had  no  struggle  with  actual  want,  he  was 
nevertheless  in  a  position  to  see  Reconstruction  not  only 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Southern  apologist,  but 
from  that  of  the  actual  rebuilder  of  the  South  's  material 
prosperity — the  farmer,  confronted  with  market  and  labor 
problems. 

Between  the  close  of  the  war  and  March,  1873,  Cooke 
had  earned  thirteen  thousand  dollars  from  his  writings, 
but  in  spite  of  this  income  and  his  fertile  farm,  he  was  at 
the  end  of  the  latter  year  still  in  debt.  The  amount  owed 
was  only  one  hundred  dollars,  and  of  course  reflected  not 
hardship  but  careless  spending,  as  the  following  record 
shows:  ".  .  .  great  event  of  the  parlour  carpet.  It  was 
bought  early  in  November  [1869]  with  a  part — $50  or 
so — of  $300  I  got  from  English  for  the  Heir  of  Gaymouni. 
The  rug  has  swans  on  it * — coincidence ;  as  a  swan  is  one 
of  the  chief  characters  in  the  heir!  .  .  .  the  parlour  with 
all  its  red  is  quite  cheerful  ..."  How  Cooke  could 
enjoy  a  rug  purchased  at  the  price  of  remaining  in  debt 
seems  a  mystery  to  one  familiar  with  his  valiant  struggle 
with  his  father's  obligations  in  the  fifties;  but  tfie  debt 
was  nominal  and  the  record  of  it  may  have  actually  been 
prompted  by  a  pride  in  financial  integrity. 

Fluctuating  grain  prices,  occasioned  by  undeterminable 
or  far-off  causes  like  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  Were  a^ 
source  of  great  annoyance  to  the  farmer-author,  who  chafed 
at  the  gamble  whereby  he  might  pay  high  prices  for 'fertil- 
izer and  seed  and  encounter  a  calamitous  fall  in  the  price 
of  wheat  before  harvesting  his  crop.  He  worried  also  over 
the  numerous  excessively  bad  crop  years  in  the  sixties  and 

i  "Susie  feeds  them  with  crumbs  in  a  way  charming  to  behold." 
(Footnote  to  the  entry  in  the  diary.) 


120         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

seventies;  but  the  great  problem  was  labor.  Except  for 
occasional  tasks,  Cooke  did  not  rely  on  negro  workmen. 
This  was  perhaps  because  of  the  relative  scarcity  of  negroes 
in  the  Valley  county  of  Clarke,  for  he  seems  never  to  have 
had  a  grudge  against  any  member  of  that  race.  Both  his 
mammy  and  his  wife's  mammy  lived  with  him,  and 
Sawney,  sold  before  the  war  as  an  incorrigible,  was  often 
back  now  to  regale  the  children  with  his  amusing  yarns. 
Cooke  corresponded  with  an  immigrant  employment  bureau 
in  New  York  in  the  hope  of  securing  a  foreign  farm-hand, 
but  soon  decided  to  rent.  Rent  he  did  to  a  succession  of 
tenants,  but  never  with  satisfactory  results.  One  was  too 
slow,  one  was  too  delicate,  one  was  a  fair  talker  but  a  poor 
performer:  thus  went  the  unfortunate  series.  He  won- 
dered why  he  never  got  a  desirable  tenant,  the  true  answer 
of  course  being  that,  with  the  decline  of  so  many  land- 
holding  families,  an  industrious  farm  laborer  or  renter 
could  with  relative  ease  better  his  position  and  pass  into 
the  proprietor  class.  Cooke's  early  post-war  gloom  over 
Virginia's  social  and  economic  future  was  soon,  by  this  very 
condition,  changed  to  complacency,  for  he  observed  in 
1882  that  the  new  white  landholders  sympathized  with  the 
problems  of  the  older  aristocracy.  This  racial  solidarity  of 
the  whites  under  the  tutelage  of  ex- Confederate  leaders 
rescued  Virginia  from  Reconstruction  and,  as  elsewhere  in 
the  South,  put  into  power  a  political  regime  that  has  not 
yet  been  seriously  disturbed. 

For  several  years  following  the  Civil  War,  Cooke  was 
silently  antagonistic  to  the  Federal  government.  He  re- 
sented his  District  Number  One  taxes.  "  Hurrah,  we  are 
as  good  as  the  f reedmen ! "  he  wrote  of  the  amnesty  procla- 
mation which  restored  the  voting  right  to  ex-Confederate 
soldiers.  On  July  4,  1870,  he  wrote:  "Grand  humbug  of 
'celebrations'! — in    which    the    South,    having    no    inde- 


THE  PKOBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     121 

pendence  to  celebrate,  takes  no  part!  Singular  how  com- 
pletely we  rebellious  ones  have  come  to  despise  the  United 
States,  their  flag,  and  all  concerning  them."  In  the  early 
seventies  Cooke  frequently  exchanged  letters  with  the 
French  critic,  A.  de  Pontmartin,  and  compared  the  condi- 
tion of  the  South  with  that  of  France.  A  decade,  however, 
sufficed  for  the  effacement  of  every  trace  of  hostility.  No 
unpleasantness  resulted  from  his  thoughts  or  his  asso- 
ciations on  his  northern  trip  in  1876.  On  this  journey  he 
paid  a  two-day  visit  to  the  Centennial  Exposition,  spent 
several  days  in  the  homes  of  G.  W.  Carleton  and  G.  C. 
Eggleston,  and  called  upon  0.  B.  Bunce,  J.  W.  Harper, 
and  Henry  Mills  Alden. 

In  the  eight  years  from  1870  until  the  death  of  his  wife 
Cooke  produced  a  half-score  of  books  which,  in  their  setting 
and  time,  varied  from  the  seventeenth  century  England  of 
Her  Majesty  the  Queen  to  the  contemporary  America  of 
Pretty  Mrs.  Gaston.  The  novels  of  this  decade  are  more 
nearly  forgotten  than  those  of  any  other  period  of  Cooke's 
activity,  but  while  they  are  not  notable  they  do  not  deserve 
aggressive  condemnation.  They  are  in  many  cases  good  of 
their  kind,  and  doubtless  gave  satisfaction  to  such  of  their 
readers  as  did  not  peruse  them  with  too  critical  an  eye. 

Among  these  novels  there  is  one,  not  the  best  of  the  lot, 
considered  as  literature,  which  stands  out  as  of  the  highest 
interest.  The  Heir  of  Gaymount  contains  an  almost  com- 
plete record  of  Cooke's  response  to  his  environment  in  the 
years  immediately  following  the  war.  There  were  in  the 
South  thousands  of  farmers  but  few  professional  writers. 
Perhaps  because  he  belonged  to  each  class,  Cooke  tried  to 
give  through  literature  an  admonitory  message  to  the 
farmer.  While  working  on  the  book,  he  called  it ' '  Truck. ' ' 
His  ideas  in  regard  to  farming  and  other  Reconstruction 
problems  are  fastened  upon  a  conventional  plot. 


122         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

Edmund  Carteret,  formerly  lieutenant  in  the  Confed- 
erate States  army,  finds  himself  the  heir  of  "Gaymount," 
an  old  family  seat  in  Virginia  on  the  South  bank  of  the 
Potomac  River.  Along  with  the  mansion-house,  however, 
Carteret  receives  but  forty  acres  of  land.  The  late  owner, 
an  uncle  of  Federal  sympathies,  has  been  angered  at  Ed- 
mund's service  to  the  Confederacy,  and  has  left  him  only 
what  he  felt  to  be  inherently  due  him  as  the  bearer  of  the 
family  name.  The  bulk  of  the  property  has  been  left  to 
another  nephew,  Arthur  Botleigh.  Edmund  not  only  has 
never  worked,  but  he  is  penniless ;  he  sits  amid  his  decaying 
possessions  and  mopes.  Shall  he  join  Maximilian's  army 
in  Mexico,  or  shall  he  buy  more  land  and  undertake  farm- 
ing? In  either  case  money  is  needed.  Meanwhile  he  has 
remained  closely  at  home,  has  not  read  a  newspaper,  and  is 
consequently  caught  in  a  tax  snare.  He  did  not  turn  in  by 
the  prescribed  time  a  list  of  his  property,  and  has  to  accept 
the  appraiser's  assessment,  which  is  ten  times  a  reasonable 
value.  To  meet  this  tax  he  contemplates  selling  the  family 
plate  but  is  prevented  from  doing  so  by  the  opportune 
arrival  of  Frank  Lance  of  the  New  York  Bird  of  Freedom 
who  pays  for  a  horse  furnished  him  during  the  war.  Car- 
teret admits  to  Lance  that  he  has  been  contemplating 
writing  a  book.  Lance  advises  him :  ' '  Abandon  your  grand 
ideas  of  writing  a  big  volume  or  volumes,  and  write  some 
sketches.  ...  I  have  found  out  that  to  do  one  small 
thing  is  better  than  resolving  only  to  do  five  hundred  big 
things.  .  .  .  Come  down  to  small  things,  above  all,  to  work. 
Do  that  and  you  shall  be  great,  glorious,  and  happy." 
Edmund  of  course  has  a  sweetheart  and  an  enemy  in  the 
neighborhood.  The  enemy  is  one  Tugmuddle,  an  overseer, 
who  ruined  Carteret's  father  and,  determined  now  to 
become  owner  of  "Gaymount,"  is  constantly  urging  Ed- 
mund to  accept  a  loan.    Major  Vawter,  father  of  Carteret's 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     123 

sweetheart,  Annie,  owes  eight  thousand  dollars  to  Tug- 
muddle  and  is  infuriated  when  the  socially  ambitious  rascal 
offers  to  cancel  the  debt  if  Annie  will  marry  his  son.  For 
Annie's  sake  Carteret  gives  a  deed  for  eight  thousand  dol- 
lars on  "Gaymount,"  and  relieves  the  Vawters.  He  is 
thus  rather  seriously  embarrassed  but  happens  to  read  a 
torn  newspaper  containing  an  account  of  a  gentleman  who 
purchased  forty  acres  of  poor  land  in  New  Jersey  and  got 
rich  on  it  by  trucking.  Carteret  thereupon  determines  to 
raise  vegetables  and  fruits.  He  enlists  for  his  trucking 
crusade  Rautzahn,  a  German  gardener,  and  Guy  Hartrig- 
ger,  a  member  of  his  old  company  who  has  never  left  him. 
The  events  so  far  chronicled  take  place  in  the  autumn  of 
1865,  whereafter  the  curtain  is  lowered  for  three  years. 
When  it  is  raised  Carteret  is  presented  as  having  actually 
cleared  over  eight  thousand  dollars  from  his  forty  acres. 
But  the  money  is  now  due  to  Tugmuddle,  and  the  failure 
of  a  bank  dissipates  six  thousand  of  it.  Frank  Lance  comes 
on  another  visit.  He  reports  that  Carteret's  sketches,  col- 
lected as  "The  Greys  and  the  Blues"  have  had  a  sale  of 
over  half  a  million  copies.  This,  unfortunately,  helps  little, 
for  Lance,  not  suspecting  such  success,  has  sold  the  work 
outright  for  a  thousand  dollars.  The  jolly  reporter  is, 
however,  a  needed  visitor,  for  worry  is  hanging  rather 
heavily  over  Edmund  much  to  the  grief  of  Annie,  now  his 
wife.  The  "heir"  is  wrought  up  over  an  effort  to  solve 
some  enigmatic  abbreviations  found,  in  the  handwriting  of 
his  uncle,  on  a  piece  of  paper  which  a  pet  swan  has  pulled 
out  from  a  crack  in  an  article  of  furniture.  Carteret  finally 
solves  the  cryptogram,  digs  at  the  designated  hour  and 
place,  and  discovers  a  chest  loaded  with  money  and  jewels 
and  containing  a  later  will  of  his  uncle  deeding  him  all  the 
property.  This  will  completely  undoes  Tugmuddle  who  has 
loaned  over  thirty  thousand  dollars  to  the  now  dead  Bot- 


124         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

leigh.  The  plot  is  concluded  with  the  marriage  of  Lance  to 
Annie's  sister,  and  with  Hartrigger's  marriage  to  Rose 
Lacy,  a  young  Irish  widow  about  whom  he  has  often  been 
good-naturedly  teased  by  Edmund. 

An  outline  of  this  commonplace  plot  fails  to  reveal  the 
true  character  of  The  Heir  of  Gaymount,  and  does  not  ex- 
plain its  importance  to  a  person  interested  in  Cooke  or  in 
contemporary  attempts  at  solving  the  problems  of  Recon- 
struction. In  the  first  place  Carteret  is  plainly  Cooke.  The 
author  and  his  created  hero  are  identical  in  the  divided  alle- 
giance of  their  families,  their  service  as  Confederate  com- 
pany officers,  their  desire  upon  first  thought  to  leave  their 
humbled  native  state,  and  their  marrying  a  young  woman 
of  the  neighborhood.  Carteret  also  writes;  the  sketches  of 
1 '  The  Greys  and  the  Blues, ' '  recall  of  course  Hammer  and 
Rapier  and,  in  particular,  Wearing  of  the  Gray.  The  com- 
ing of  the  New  York  writer,  the  intense  interest  in  garden- 
ing, and  the  worry  over  District  Number  One  taxes  are 
further  parallels.  Lance  called  Carteret's  baby  " Little 
Miss  Rat, "  "  Lambpig, "  '  *  Mrs.  Smallweed, ' '  and  a  number 
of  other  epithets  which  Cooke  bestowed  playfully  on  his 
own  baby  daughter. 

More  important  even  than  this  reflection  of  the  author  is 
the  book's  preaching  of  the  doctrine  of  work  as  a  remedy 
for  the  South 's  troubles.  Cooke  not  only  saw  certain  old 
families  face  facts  and  maintain  their  status,  but  he 
witnessed  sadly  the  decline  of  others  through  lack  of 
industry  and  initiative.  His  book  might  be  taken  as,  in 
part,  an  appeal  to  the  latter  type  of  Virginian.  The  hero 
was  "one  of  a  class  more  numerous  than  the  world 
supposes  .  .  .  the  class  of  idlers  with  the  capacity  to 
perform  hard  work,  if  they  can  only  get  a  clear  idea  of 
how  to  begin. "  ' '  Begin  with  what  you  have, ' '  summarizes 
Cooke's  admonition  given  in  the  widely  quoted  poem  "My 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     125 

Acre,"  and  in  the  volume  under  consideration.  "  'I  have 
been  an  idler  up  to  this  time, '  said  the  young  man ;  '  I  am 
going  to  try  to  become  industrious,  and  I  hope  well  to  do. 
I  have  been  living  in  cloudland,  and  I  mean  to  come  down 
to  solid  ground.  I  have  been  planning  and  scheming,  and 
dreaming  how  I  could  buy  land,  and  make  money  culti- 
vating it.  .  .  .  What  I  mean  to  do  now  is,  to  give  up  all 
such  fancies  of  adding  to  my  estate,  to  cultivate  what  I 
have,  and  to  make  this  tract  of  forty  acres  bring  me  as 
much  as  four  hundred  or  a  thousand.'  "  The  advice  was 
excellent  and  was  much  needed  in  the  South,  but  Cooke's 
application  of  it  to  the  persons  of  the  story  results  in  a 
financial  success  so  extraordinary  as  to  be  almost  absurd. 
Making  no  allowances  for  possible  loss,  he  almost  literally 
counts  an  earned  coin  for  each  seed  sown.  The  inadap- 
tability of  a  particular  crop  to  a  particular  soil  and  the 
glutting  of  markets  have  no  terrors  for  the  fortunate  heir 
of  "Gaymount."  Cooke  urges  Virginia  as  a  superb  place 
for  grape  culture,  describes  the  cabbage  as  a  "noble  vege- 
table," and  even  goes  so  far  as  to  present  a  summarizing 
balance-sheet  of  the  truck-farmer 's  transactions : 

"2  acres  of  late  cabbages,  in  ground  from  which  chevril  roots 
were  taken  in  July:— 8,400  cabbages  .  .  .  $672.00." 

Thus  are  itemized  tomatoes,  peas,  melons,  cucumbers, 
horse-radish,  and  other  vegetables. 

Although  the  chief  function  of  The  Heir  of  Gaymount 
was  to  deliver  an  exhortation  to  the  author's  contempora- 
ries, the  book  has  certain  other  aspects  of  minor  interest. 
It  presents  a  quiet  defence  of  the  old  Southern  order. 
Carteret  says  of  the  pride  of  birth : 

"The  culprit  before  you  was  born  in  Virginia — he  naturally  loves 
it  therefore,  and  perhaps  some  of  its  faults  even.  Had  he  a  grand- 
father? It  is  probable;  most  people  have.  And  he  pleads  guilty 
to  possessing  some  old  pictures,  a  little  old  silver,  and  even  a  torn 


126         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

family  tree!  Is  he  'one  of  the  wicked'  for  that  reason?  Heaven 
forbid!  He  is  not  responsible.  These  objects  were  here  when  he 
came;  they  will  be  here  when  he  is  gone,  he  hopes,  and  his>  affection 
for  them  is  the  result  of  habit,  and  not  intended  to  offend  anybody. 
Doubtless,  elsewhere  in  the  world  there  are  many  houses,  with  pic- 
tures and  silver  and  family  trees  in  them.  If  their  owners  derive 
innocent  satisfaction  from  their  possession,  why  should  I  think  hard 
of  it  or  they  of  me?" 


Cooke,  lifelong  exponent  of  kindness,  quieted  and  milked 
"the  Rose  heifer"  when  she  would  stand  for  no  one  else. 
Carteret  says  here  of  the  wounded  swan  which  he  took 
home  as  a  pet,  "Yes;  but  remember  the  swan  found  it.  I 
confess  I  think  of  that  often,  Lance.  ...  I  think  the  fact 
teaches  the  value  of  kindness  in  this  world."  In  its  love- 
episodes  the  book  is  typical  of  its  author.  The  usual  con- 
trast is  afforded  by  the  somewhat  burlesquely  handled 
affair  between  Guy  and  Mrs.  Lacy,  and  the  tender  affection 
of  the  protagonists.  Annie,  however,  is  not  the  usual  help- 
less heroine ;  she  is  represented  as  being  the  mainstay  of  the 
Vawter  home. 

Cooke  devoted  much  thought  and  work  to  the  unique 
Heir  of  Gay  mount.  Though  absorbed  at  first  by  his  task, 
he  soon  found  the  composition  attended  with  "unexpected 
difficulty."  He  had  the  subject  in  mind  by  January  6, 
1868,  began  writing  on  August  18,  but  did  not  finish  until 
January  25,  1869.  "Never  did  one  small  book  undergo 
such  alterations,  cuttings  down,  remoulding,  and  remaking 
generally."  Cooke  did  not  readily  find  a  publisher  for  his 
manuscript.  He  ' '  offered  it  to  Appleton  's  Journal,  H.  and 
Home,  Harpers,  before  English  accepted  it  for  the  Old 
Guard." 

The  monthly  Old  Guard  and  the  weekly  New  York  Day- 
Book  were  published  by  Van  Evrie,  Horton  and  Co.,  a 
publishing  firm  devoted  to  an  aggressive  anti-black  cam- 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     127 

paign,  as  will  be  shown  by  some  quotations  from  the 
announcements  on  the  paper  covers  of  The  Heir  of  Gay- 
mount  which,  after  its  appearance  in  the  magazine,  was 
issued  as  Number  I  of  the  ' '  Old  Guard  Library. ' '  The  New 
York  DayrBook  is  described  as  being  an  "Independent 
Democratic  Paper"  devoted  to  "WHITE  SUPREM- 
ACY": 

"And  standing  now  just  where  it  did  ten  years  ago,  it  therefore 
ignores,  rejects  and  utterly  repudiates  ALL  the  combined  efforts  of 
fanatics,  traitors  and  fools  to  MONGRELIZE  the  Government,  and 
demands  the  RESTORATION  OF  THE  WHITE  REPUBLIC,  not 
merely  because  it  is  best,  but  because  the  LOWER  RACES  cannot  be 
incorporated  in  our  political  system  without  the  utter  destruction  of 
Republican  institutions.  With  a  corps  of  writers  abundantly  com- 
petent to  demonstrate  this  tremendous  truth  to  the  popular 
understanding,  to  convince  the  most  ignorant  and  benighted  that 
'Reconstruction'  is  abnormal,  anti-social,  and  forever  impracticable, 
The  Day-Book  confidently  appeals  to  true  Democrats  everywhere  to 
come  to  its  aid  in  this  great  cause,  and  save  Democratic  institutions 
from  the  wreck  and  ruin  otherwise  inevitable." 

White  Supremacy  and  Negro  Subordination,  a  book  by 
J.  K.  Van  Evrie,  was  also  advertised : 

"It  explains  the  suicidal  policy  of  the  Mongrel  Party  in  trying  to 
make  races  equal  that  God  has  made  unequal.  ...  It  deals  only 
with  the  fact — the  fixed  and  everlasting  fact — that  God  has  made 
negroes  a  different  and  subordinate  race  and  therefore  designed  them 
for  a  different  and  subordinate  condition,  and  all  who  fail  to  recog- 
nize that  design  must,  of  necessity,  aid  in  the  destruction  of  society 
and  the  ruin  of  their  country." 

As  a  monograph  on  the  problems  of  reconstruction  The 
Heir  of  Gaymount  belongs  in  the  same  general  category 
with  the  Van  Evrie-Horton  publications.  In  contrast, 
however,  with  the  tone  of  the  above-quoted  advertisements 
Cooke's  moderation  was  notable,  but  the  value  of  his 
book  as  a  document  is  conspicuously  lessened  by  his  failure 


328         JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

to  consider  the  negro.    Between  diatribe  and  ignoring  there 
is  little  to  choose. 

In  spite  of  his  enthusiastic  effort  to  produce  a  novel 
economically  influential  and  helpful,  Cooke  was  discouraged 
in  every  way  by  The  Heir  of  Gaymount.  It  was  hard  to 
write,  a  publisher  was  hard  to  find,  and  the  book,  when 
published,  attracted  little  attention.  The  author  was,  how- 
ever, writing  for  a  livelihood,  and  his  tales  of  melodramatic 
adventure  found  a  ready  sale.  The  fame  of  Surry  shone  in 
sharp  contrast  with  the  immediate  oblivion  of  the  Heir. 
It  is  little  surprising,  then,  that  in  his  next  two  novels  he 
should  have  turned  again  to  the  past  which  he  ever  loved 
more  than  the  present  and,  in  his  search  for  romance, 
should  have  gone  as  far  as  the  rocky  coast  of  Wales.  The 
Man  Hunter  and  Out  of  the  Foam  were  not  merely  remote 
from  what  Cooke  knew ;  they  were  at  the  opposite  pole  from 
what  he  had  commendably  undertaken  in  The  Heir  of  Gay- 
mount.  The  Man  Hunter  was  begun  on  July  9,  1869,  and 
finished  September  6,  just  before  Cooke  moved  to  "The 
Briars."  Installed  in  his  new  home  he  devoted  the  re- 
mainder of  the  year  to  the  composition  of  Out  of  the  Foam, 
which  in  manuscript  was  called  The  Wolves  of  Pembroke- 
shire. "I  think  I  can  make  something  sensational  of  it," 
wrote  Cooke  when  he  began  The  Man  Hunter.  "Glad  it's 
done,"  he  said  when  he  finished  it.  He  liked  Out  of  the 
Foam  "of  its  sort.  The  sort  is  not  literature  and  Reade 
invented  it  to  make  money.  I  am  in  want  thereof,  and  1 
write  the  Wolves  to  sell,  as  I  would  raise  wheat  or  corn,  or 
make  coats  if  I  were  a  tailor.  I  follow  '  the  fashion ' — when 
I  should  set  it !  ...  I  have  attempted  a  style  and  treatment 
not  natural  to  me,  and  I  do  not  propose,  D.  V.,  ever  again 
to  return  to  it.  .  .  .  'Out  of  the  Foam'  is  mere  melo- 
drama." These  two  similar  novels  Cooke  always  regarded 
as  his  worst  works,  The  Man  Hunter  appeared  in  the  St. 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     129 

Louis  Home  Journal,  but  was  never  reprinted.  Out  of  the 
Foam  "was  sold,  with  Fairfax,  to  that  jovial  gentleman 
Mr.  Carleton  for  $400,  its  full  worth."  It  was  published 
in  1871. 

Out  of  the  Foam  deals  with  the  adventures  of  Edmund 
Earle,  a  young  officer  of  the  French  Navy  who,  during  the 
Anglo-French  struggle  of  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  makes  a  raid  upon  the  Welsh  coast.  Earle  visits 
his  supposed  mother,  a  solitary  who  keeps  a  cliff  beacon 
burning;  and,  because  of  his  nautical  prowess  and  his 
knowledge  of  the  Romany  Rye,  is  received  into  membership 
by  the  "Wolves,"  a  band  of  smugglers  and  plunderers 
which  infests  the  coast.  In  the  neighborhood  lives  the  evil 
Sir  Murdaugh  Westbrooke  who  is  desperately  anxious  to 
kill  Earle,  and  drive  from  the  country  the  woman  who 
guards  the  beacon  light.  Sir  Murdaugh 's  chief  est  joy  is 
found  in  the  dissection  of  corpses,  and  his  zealous  pursuit 
of  the  strange  hobby  leads  him  to  rifle  the  grave  of  a 
"Wolf"  who  has  died  of  hydrophobia.  He  unwittingly 
infects  himself  from  the  corpse  and  is  later  seized  by  the 
malady  in  the  presence  of  a  crowd  assembled  to  see  him 
married  to  Elinor  Maverick,  a  lamia  of  the  neighborhood. 
In  ways  too  complicated  to  outline  briefly  it  is  discovered 
that  Earle  is  the  long  ago  stolen  son  and  heir  of  a  popular 
local  marquis  to  whom  Westbrooke  is  the  apparent  next  of 
kin;  and  that  the  old  solitary  is  not  Earle 's  mother  but 
Westbrooke 's  wife  whom  he  has  undertaken  to  despatch 
to  the  West  Indies  before  his  new  wedding.  To  the  intense 
delight  of  all,  from  the  "Wolves"  to  the  marquis,  Earle 
marries  Elinor's  cousin,  the  virtuous  Rose  Maverick. 

The  plot,  thus  briefly  outlined,  does  not  indicate  fully  the 
nature  of  the  story.  There  are  captures  and  escapes,  an 
imprisonment  in  a  charnel  vault,  sea  fights,  the  mutilation 
of  a  marriage  register,  secret  doors,  and  other  incidents 


130         JOHN    ESTBN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

and  devices  relished  by  writers  of  the  dime-novel.  Cooke 
was  always  ashamed  of  Out  of  the  Foam,  but  it  is  really  an 
excellent  story  of  its  type.  It  has  elements  of  adventure, 
mystery,  and  terror.  It  presents  •  living  embodiments  of 
physical  and  moral  ugliness  in  combat  with  brave  and 
estimable  persons  in  whose  triumph  one  becomes  something 
more  than  quietly  interested.  To  secure  a  reader 's  approval 
a  novel  must  be  a  masterly  study  appealing  to  the  intellect 
and  reflecting  true  criticism  of  life,  or,  failing  this,  must  be 
either  delightful  or  sensational.  Out  of  the  Foam  is  neither 
masterly  nor  delightful,  but  it  is  highly  sensational,  and 
can  withal  be  put  down  unfinished  less  easily  than  some  of 
its  author's  better  books. 

Cooke's  determination  to  write  books  of  a  different  type 
bore  direct  fruit.  His  next  work  in  order  of  composition 
was  Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  a  historical  romance  of  the 
downfall  of  Charles  I.  On  February  10,  1870,  he  wrote 
entirely  to  his  "satisfaction"  the  first  "17  pp.  of  the 
'Story  of  Cecil.'  "  Since  the  new  story  was  to  be  based  in 
part  on  historical  fact,  the  author  was  often  "greatly  de- 
layed by  want  of  authorities  of  every  sort. ' '  Her  Majesty 
the  Queen,  as  the  "Story  of  Cecil"  came  to  be  called,  was 
finished  in  thirty-two  working  days,  but  the  difficulty  in 
securing  promptly  the  needed  source-books  caused  its  com- 
pletion to  be  delayed  until  November  16.  The  novel  is 
supposedly  the  memoirs  of  a  devoted  Cavalier,  one  Edmund 
Cecil,  who,  when  his  master  has  been  beheaded,  crosses  to 
Virginia  to  establish  himself  on  the  York  Eiver.  The  story, 
however,  deals  only  with  Edmund's  adventures  in  England. 
These  are  sufficiently  dangerous,  for  ten  narrow  escapes 
from  death  are  chronicled.  Edmund's  brother  Henry  is 
also  an  important  figure.  Each  of  the  brothers  loves  Fran- 
ces Villiers,  and  each  resolves  to  withdraw  in  favor  of  the 
other.    Harry,  however,  soon  falls  in  love  with  Alice  Cary, 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     131 

a  niece  of  Lord  Falkland,  marries  her  later,  and  con- 
tinues the  English  line  at  Cecil  Court.  The  movements  of 
Queen  Henrietta  Maria  are  followed  rather  closely,  and 
Cooke  dwells  on  her  calmness  and  bravery.  Although  the 
Queen  is  the  most  prominent  historical  figure,  attention  is 
given  to  the  king,  Prince  Rupert,  the  official  headsman,  and 
others ;  and  space  is  devoted  to  the  riots  in  London  and  to 
court  life. 

As  a  tour-de-force  attempting  to  reproduce  an  atmos- 
phere of  the  past,  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  is  of  the  manner 
of  Henry  Esmond,  and,  like  Esmond,  contains  references  to 
contemporary  notables  in  politics  and  literature.  Evelyn, 
Waller,  Hampden  and  Milton  are  among  those  mentioned. 
The  work  aimed  to  afford  a  panorama  of  its  period,  but 
unfortunately  lacks  the  little  details  indicative  of  a  first- 
hand knowledge  of  the  ground.  The  style  is  fluent  and 
the  incidents  are  well  handled,  but  there  are  no  high  places 
— the  narrative  remains  on  a  dead  level.  Cooke  cherished 
the  idea  of  having  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  brought  out  in 
England,  and  after  it  was  refused  by  the  Harpers,  cor- 
responded with  his  friend,  Colonel  Peyton,  who  was  living 
in  Guernsey.  Peyton  could  accomplish  nothing  in  the  way 
of  interesting  a  publisher,  and  suggested  that  Cooke  send 
the  novel  direct  to  some  London  firm  which  he  might  con- 
sider likely  to  accept  it.  Cooke  may  have  remembered  the 
loss  of  his  Jackson,  for  he  seems  never  to  have  sent  the 
manuscript  to  England.  It  was  finally  published  by  J.  B. 
Lippincott  and  Company  in  1873. 

In  time  of  composition  the  beginning  of  Lee  was  dove- 
tailed into  the  end  of  Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  and  when  the 
life  of  the  general  was  completed  Cooke  did  not  directly 
commence  a  new  book.  He  was  tired  from  continuous  work, 
and  was  worried  by  the  sickness  of  his  son  " Eddie,"  so  he 
wrote  a  few  magazine  articles  and  worked  out  in  his  mind 


132         JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

the  plot  of  the  later  romance,  Justin  Barley.  He  also  deter- 
mined on  and  began  a  revision  of  The  Shadow  on  the  Wall. 
On  July  20  he  sent  two  hundred  pages  to  Sheffield  and  Stone 
of  the  St.  Louis  Home  Journal.  As  composition  proceeded, 
Cooke  grew  more  and  more  delighted  with  the  character 
of  Dr.  Vandyke,  and  consequently  recalled  the  introductory 
chapters  from  Sheffield  and  Stone  and  offered  the  complete 
work,  finished  in  December,  to  Appleton.  He  had  succes- 
sively referred  to  the  manuscript  as  The  Bride  of  the 
Rivanna  and  At  Midnight,  but  he  readily  agreed  to  Dr. 
Vandyke,  the  title  suggested  by  Bunce,  who  intended  to  pub- 
lish the  work  in  Appleton's  Journal.  Bunce  later  gave  to 
a  serial  by  De  Mille  the  space  reserved  for  Dr.  Vandyke, 
but  offered  to  print  the  latter  as  a  volume.  The  author 
preferred  octavo  to  the  usual  duodecimo,  and  the  book 
appeared  in  1872  with  numerous  full-page  illustrations. 
The  titular  hero  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  Dr.  Fossyl 
in  Ellie.  There  are,  however,  few  traces  of  Cooke's  ante- 
bellum manner.  The  story  is  wildly  melodramatic.  An  in- 
sane nobleman,  believing  himself  endowed  with  "second- 
sight,"  stabs  his  wife  on  the  night  of  his  wedding  and  then 
commits  suicide ;  two  mentally  diseased  girls  are  rescued  by 
the  skilful  doctor  from  their  fearful  predicament:  one  is 
led  out  to  Christian  cheerfulness,  the  other  to  happy  wife- 
hood. Of  such  elements  as  these  Cooke  fabricates  a  plot 
which  is  typical  of  his  later  manner,  and  owes  many  inci- 
dents to  his  previous  work.  The  scene  of  Dr.  Vandyke  is 
laid  in  Williamsburg  and  on  the  upper  James  River  in  late 
Colonial  times.  The  Virginia  names,  Bland  and  Cary,  are 
borne  by  characters,  and  reference  is  made  to  several  fa- 
mous estates,  such  as  William  Byrd's  ' '  Westover. ' '  The 
Virginia  Gazette  and  the  vessel  "Charming  Sally"  are 
mentioned;  but  in  spite  of  these  superficial  local  details, 
the  story  is  not  at  all  a  reflection  of  Virginia  life.     It  is 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     133 

not  to  be  compared  with  The  Virginia  Comedians,  the  his- 
torical period  of  which  it  shares. 

The  first  instalment  of  Paul,  the  Hunter,  the  rewritten 
Pride  of  Falling  Water,  was  sent  to  the  St.  Louis  Home 
Journal  on  January  6, 1871,  to  replace  the  recalled  Dr.  Van- 
dyke. The  work  was  finished  on  the  third  of  August.  Its 
scene  is  laid  around  Cooke's  early  haunts;  "Glengary"  is 
referred  to,  and  the  familiar  "Wagner  of  Fairfax  is  once 
more  depicted.  Cooke  reserved  the  right  to  publish  the 
work  in  volume  form,  but  it  was  never  reprinted. 

Before  continuing — with  Justin  Harley  and  Canolles — 
in  the  field  of  Colonial  times,  Cooke  wrote  a  novel  of  con- 
temporary society  on  the  shore  of  the  Chesapeake.  The 
idea  occurred  to  him  on  January  23,  1873 ;  work  was  begun 
two  days  later ;  and  the  book  was  finished  on  February  25. 
The  growing  manuscript  was  successively  called  Some  Coun- 
try People,  Jack  Daintries,  The  Hollies,  and  Pretty  Mrs. 
Gaston.  Cooke's  difficulty  in  his  choice  of  a  title  is,  as  usual, 
interesting.  The  one  first  thought  of  is  too  colorless  as 
well  as  too  general.  The  second  is  not  wholly  appropriate, 
for  Daintries  is  no  more  important  than  a  half-dozen  other 
characters.  The  Hollies  is  not  altogether  to  be  condemned, 
for  it  is  the  name  of  Mrs.  Gaston's  home  at  which  many  of 
the  incidents  take  place.  Of  the  four  titles  Pretty  Mrs. 
Gaston  is  best,  but  it  has  no  such  definite  appropriateness 
as,  for  instance,  Tess  of  the  D'Urbervilles,  for  the  attractive 
widow  is  by  no  means  a  dominant  figure  in  the  book. 

Pretty  Mrs.  Gaston  is  a  pleasant  conventional  story  with 
a  bothersome  will,  and  the  rescue  of  a  sweet  girl  from  in- 
jury ;  and  it  culminates  in  a  number  of  expected  marriages. 
The  book  deserves  neither  praise  nor  blame.  It  served  its 
temporary  purpose,  and  is  now  forgotten.  It  is  mildly 
diverting,  but  is  of  no  interest  as  a  record  of  life  and  man- 
ners, for  it  is  Virginian  only  by  the  author's  statement.  The 


134         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

persons  are  as  conventional  as  the  plot,  and  the  events  might 
have  been  localized  at  any  spot  where  English-speaking 
people  congregate.  Pretty  Mrs.  Gaston  was  offered  to  Apple- 
ton's  Journal,  but  was  declined,  the  editor  politely  alleging 
that  serials  were  not  succeeding.  It  was  brought  out  in  1874 
by  the  Orange  Judd  Company  in  an  attractively  bound 
duodecimo  volume,  copiously  illustrated  with  cuts  which  are 
not  only  wretchedly  executed,  but  show  the  slovenly  artist's 
unfamiliarity  with  the  story.  The  plump  Mrs.  Gaston,  for 
instance,  is  depicted  as  much  leaner  than  the  slender  Annie 
Bell.  With  Pretty  Mrs.  Gaston  were  bound  two  shorter 
stories,  "Annie  at  the  Corner,"  and  "The  Wedding  at 
Duluth." 

As  far  back  as  July  27,  1872,  Cooke  had  been  revolving 
in  his  head  a  story  of  old  Virginia  which  his  wife  wished 
him  "to  call  Gary  of  Hunsdon,"  but  which  eventually 
appeared  as  Justin  Harley.  Still  a  prey  to  worry  at  having 
followed  the  style  of  composition  exemplified  in  Out  of  the 
Foam,  he  again  "determined  to  abandon  the  Reade-Collinsish 
style  of  mystery  and  sensation  and  come  to  less  spasmodic 
writing — depending  on  a  'pleasant'  style  and  characteristic 
delineation  of  real  life  in  Va."  The  latter  he  regarded  as 
his  ' '  true  field. "  "  This  I  began  with  in  the  Comedians  and 
St.  John,''  he  says,  "and  I  think  any  literary  individuality 
and  real  reputation  I  have  based  on  my  writings  in  this 
department."  The  writing  of  Gary  of  Hunsdon  did  not 
go  forward  well,  and  on  January  14,  1873,  the  author  made 
1 '  a  highly  successful  re-beginning  of  '  Carysbrook. '  ' '  Now, 
however,  came  the  interruption  caused  by  the  composition  of 
Pretty  Mrs.  Gaston  and,  when  resumed,  the  "Cary"  story 
was  as  difficult  as  ever.  Cooke  decided  to  pattern  the  hero 
more  or  less  closely  on  Harry  Warren  in  the  short  story, 
' '  The  Wedding  at  Duluth, ' '  and  so  far  had  kept  to  his  idea 
of  making  the  novel  pleasant,  descriptive,  and  historical, 


THE  PEOBLEMS  0^  RECONSTRUCTION     135 

rather  than  sensational.  George  Cary  Eggleston,  who  spent 
at  "The  Briars"  the  week  of  August  3,  thought,  from  a 
perusal  of  the  earlier  portion,  that  the  work  was  of  the 
type  of  The  Virginia  Comedians,  but  perhaps  superior. 
Cooke  was  "quite  stirred  ...  up"  by  Eggleston 's  visit, 
and  "parted  with  him  reluctantly."  The  publishers  of 
To-day  (Philadelphia)  were,  however,  "anxiously  await- 
ing" a  large  instalment  of  the  novel,  and  Cooke  hurried. 
He  soon  admittedly  fell  into  sensationalism,  but  thought 
Justin  Harley  "tolerably  good"  in  a  "bad  way."  The 
story  was  an  "immense  favorite"  with  the  readers  of 
To-day  and  the  publisher  followed  its  serial  run  with  its 
issue  in  1875  in  volume  form  under  the  imprint  of  Claxton, 
Remson  &  Haffelfinger  (Philadelphia).  The  serial  and  the 
book  were  illustrated.  "The  illustrations  by  my  friend 
Sheppard,"  said  Cooke  with  excellent  judgment,  "are  I 
must  say  atrocious.  He  seems  not  to  have  the  least  idea 
of  the  text." 

Justin  Harley  begins  with  a  description  of  certain  mem- 
bers of  several  old  Virginia  families,  but  these  worthies 
are  soon  involved  in  the  meshes  of  tawdry  melodrama.  The 
book  not  only  exemplifies  the  impossibility  of  Cooke's  going 
back  at  this  period  of  his  life  to  the  style  of  The  Virginia 
Comedians,  but  shows  vividly  how  his  inventiveness  was 
flagging.  The  queer-minded  Puccoon  is  Hunter  John  Myers 
of  Leather  Stocking  and  Silk.  The  Lady  of  the  Snow  is  an 
actress,  as  is  Beatrice  Hallam.  The  attractive  lowly  child 
proves  to  be  well-born,  as  in  The  Last  of  the  Foresters  and 
Ellie.  The  lovers  take  a  Browningesque  ride,  as  in  Surry. 
The  hero  believes  himself  a  murderer  as  in  Mohun.  There 
is  the  recovery  of  a  person  left  supposedly  dead,  a  feature 
found  in  Dr.  Vandyke  and  Surry.  Both  St.  Leger  and 
Harley  secure  through  accident  the  first  embrace  of  a 
loved  one — a  trick  common  to  many  of  Cooke's  books.    Mr. 


136         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

Hicks  is  Tugmuddle,  and  the  imported  Lincolnshire  drain- 
age expert  is  a  counterpart  of  the  German  gardener  in 
The  Heir  of  Gaymount.  Many  other  parallels  might  be 
cited.  In  fact  Justin  Harley  looks  back  for  incident  through 
Cooke's  whole  previous  career  as  a  writer  of  fiction.  The 
novel  has,  however,  a  few  portraits  worthy  of  appearing  in 
the  Virginia  Comedians  gallery.  One  would  like  especially 
to  know  more  of  Judge  Bland's  aged  mother  who  "was  a 
perfect  chronicle  in  herself  of  every  Virginia  family,"  and 
whose  chamber  was  "drawing-room  number  two"  for  all 
comers  to  the  house. 

It  has  been  noted  that  Cooke,  after  the  war,  found  the 
New  York  World  immediately  hospitable  to  his  contribu- 
tions, and  the  Northern  press  in  general  ready  to  receive 
works  from  his  pen.  He  did  not,  however,  neglect  Southern 
publications,  and  sent  a  number  of  papers  to  the  Baltimore 
New  Eclectic  and  its  successor,  the  Southern  Magazine,  a 
brilliant  but  ephemeral  monthly.  In  March,  1873,  George 
Cary  Eggleston  wrote  Cooke  a  letter  expressing  gratitude 
for  encouragement  when  a  young  man  in  ante-bellum  Rich- 
mond, and  asking  for  contributions  to  Hearth  and  Home. 
Cooke  replied  with  some  manuscripts  and  for  several  years 
was  a  frequent  contributor  to  his  friend's  popular  illustrat- 
ed weekly.  Perhaps  the  most  helpful  of  Cooke's  Northern 
friends  was,  however,  0.  B.  Bunce  of  Applet  on' s  Journal. 
From  the  late  sixties  well  up  to  the  end  of  the  seventies, 
the  Southern  writer  sent  him  scores  of  articles  most 
of  which  were  accepted  and  paid  for  promptly.  The  large 
amount  of  periodical  literature  produced  by  Cooke  during 
the  seventies  was,  as  usual,  chiefly  of  three  types,  Virginia 
history,  criticism,  and  sentimental  fiction.  Cooke  did  not 
hesitate  to  make  repeated  use  of  a  subject.  A  short  inter- 
view with  Thackeray  during  the  latter 's  tour  of  America 
resulted  in  "Thackeray  and  his  'People,'  "  "A  Talk  With 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION     137 

Thackeray,"  "An  Hour  With  Thackeray,"  and  at  least 
two  other  articles.  The  Virginia  novelist  found  the  English- 
man "a  most  excellent  genial  gentleman  and  companion." 
In  a  reply  to  a  question  Thackeray  "smiled  in  a  good-na- 
tured way,  and  said:  'I  really  don't  know  where  I  got 
all  the  rascals  in  my  works.  I  certainly  have  never  lived 
with  such  people/  " 

Cooke  seems  to  have  done  little  in  1874  except  write 
shorter  papers  for  periodicals;  for  the  early  part  of  the 
year  was  the  "hardest  year  yet,  no  wheat,  no  literary  re- 
turns, nothing  but  esperance ! "  By  June  27  he  had  writ- 
ten 450  pages  of  a  novel  dealing  with  the  period  of  the 
Revolution  and  at  first  called  Dinsmore,  but  later  given  the 
name  Cary  of  Hunsdon,  a  discarded  title  of  Justin  Harley. 
Like  Thackeray  and  Dickens,  who  grieved  over  the  killing 
of  favorite  characters,  Cooke  said  of  Andre:  "I  am  much 
concerned  about  poor  Andre  who  makes  me  melancholy." 
He  determined  to  send  the  manuscript  to  Appleton,  Leslie, 
and  Harper  in  the  order  named.  Leslie  accepted,  paying 
him  $1,000  in  four  monthly  instalments.  The  work  was 
never  reprinted. 

In  his  next  book  Cooke  continued  to  use  the  American 
Revolution  as  a  background.  Canolles  was  finished  on  Au- 
gust 4,  1876,  was  published  in  the  Detroit  Free  Press,  and 
was  brought  out  in  book  form  in  1877  by  Belford  Brothers 
of  Toronto.  Canolles,  the  titular  hero,  is  a  Revolutionary 
warrior  who  fights  on  the  American  side,  but  not  under 
the  American  flag,  and  is  hence  considered  an  outlaw.  His 
capture  and  escape,  rides  in  the  swamp,  fights,  and  love 
affairs  make  up  the  book.  Lafayette,  Wayne,  Tarleton, 
and  Arnold  appear  in  brief  scenes.  Like  a  number  of 
Cooke's  stories,  Canolles  begins  with  the  conventional  yet 
effective  opening,  the  man  on  horseback  at  sunset,  and  in 
other  respects  seems  equally  hackneyed — especially  to  one 


138         JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

who  has  read  all  its  predecessors.  In  its  love  and  war  ad- 
ventures it  has  elements  decidedly  suggestive  of  Surry;  in 
its  free  handling  of  early  American  history  it  harks  back 
to  The  Virginia  Comedians.  Its  appearance  in  print  marked 
the  culmination  of  another  stage  of  Cooke 's  literary  career, 
for  he  was  never  again  to  produce  a  novel  in  the  field  or  in 
the  manner  of  either  of  these  two  important  works. 


CHAPTER   V 
LAST   YEARS— CONCLUSION 

Although  John  Esten  Cooke  never  experienced  an  ill- 
ness serious  enough  to  interrupt  for  any  length  of  time  his 
literary  work,  he  was,  on  the  contrary,  never  extremely 
robust.  In  the  seventies  he  was  afflicted  with  the  neuralgia 
of  the  teeth  which  annoyed  him  in  the  fifties,  had  a  yearly 
attack  of  hay-fever  about  September  1,  and  was  troubled 
by  other  unpleasant  though  apparently  transitory  ailments. 
"I  have  had,"  he  recorded  in  1877,  "an  excruciating  time 
with  rheumatism  which  racked  me  day  and  night.' * 

Before  Cooke  had  been  married  half  a  decade,  he  had  be- 
gun to  be  perturbed  over  the  state  of  his  wife's  health.  In 
1873  Mrs.  Cooke  was  badly  shaken  up  by  stepping  off  the 
porch  at  ' '  Pagebrook, ' '  and  in  1875  her  husband  noted  her 
' '  lassitude. ' '  * '  Mary  is  rather  pulled  down  by  the  weather 
in  spite  of  cod  liver,  ale  and  sherry,"  he  wrote  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1877.  The  intermittently  composed  diary  contains 
the  following  entry  for  Cooke's  birthday,  November  3: 
"A  charming,  brilliant  day,  the  perfection  of  weather  to 
live  in — and  I  am  forty-seven !  It  seems  not  much,  but  it  is 
two-thirds  of  human  life — which  should  make  one  thought- 
ful. There  is  nothing  to  do,  but  try  to  do  your  duty,  love 
your  neighbor,  believe  and  trust  in  God  and  our  Redeemer 
and  leave  the  rest  to  a  greater  power  than  any  on  earth." 
The  autumn  and  early  winter  saw  the  family  in  good  health. 
Christmas  passed  with  the  usual  festivities,  an  abundance 
of  good  things  to  eat,  and  numerous  guests.    The  tree  was 

139 


140         JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

especially  pretty;  it  was  decorated  by  Mrs.  Cooke,  who  sup- 
plemented the  usual  features  by  placing  artificial  birds  on 
the  boughs.  The  entry  telling  of  the  holiday  gaieties  closes 
with  the  frequently  used  and  jauntily  penned  motto,  "Es- 
perance."  The  word,  as  the  journal  stands,  is  crossed  out 
and  by  it  is  written,  "  Finis,  January  15, 1878."  This  entry, 
in  his  now  to  be  discontinued  diary,  refers  to  the  sudden 
death  of  his  wife. 

When  Cooke  had  somewhat  recovered  from  his  grief,  his 
thoughts  naturally  turned  to  the  future  of  his  motherless 
children.  He  left  them  at  ''Saratoga,"  the  home  of  their 
uncle,  Powel  Page,  and  journeyed  to  the  Tidewater  region 
of  Virginia  to  pay  a  visit  to  his  sister  Sal  at  "Orapax"  in 
New  Kent  County.  Here  he  not  only  received  mental  com- 
fort, but  returned  home  accompanied  by  Miss  Mariah  Pen- 
dleton Duval,  his  sister's  eldest  daughter,  who  for  a  while 
directed  the  education  and  upbringing  of  his  children. 
Much  as  she  loved  her  uncle's  children,  the  gifted  Miss 
Duval  could  not,  of  course,  sacrifice  a  career  to  their  ser- 
vice. The  author's  decision,  therefore,  was  to  keep  his 
sons  at  home  while  he  entrusted  his  daughter  to  her  mother's 
sister,  Mrs.  William  Carter  of  ' '  The  Glen. ' '  The  boys  also 
paid  frequent  and  extended  visits  to  the  house  of  their  aunt, 
and  thus  ' '  The  Briars ' '  was  no  longer  the  scene  of  the  busy 
social  activity  which  it  had  witnessed  under  its  gracious 
mistress. 

The  novelist  is,  in  fact,  described  by  many  of  his  friends 
as  having  been  a  rather  lonely  figure  during  his  widowed 
years.  Miss  Duval  has  given  an  excellent  account  of  his 
life  at  this  period.  The  stone  mansion-house  of  "The 
Briars"  was  built  in  the  form  of  an  "L."  On  the  right  of 
the  entrance  was  a  spacious  parlor  lighted  by  four  large 
windows  with  solid  wooden  shutters.  The  furniture  of  this 
room  was  old  and  quaint,  and  portraits  of  Cooke's  parents 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  141 

shared  the  wall-space  with  Confederate  souvenirs  among 
which  was  the  coat  that  had  once  been  Stuart's.  The 
bereaved  novelist  daily  placed  a  fresh  flower  in  a  vase  be- 
fore the  portrait  of  his  wife  which  occupied  the  place  of 
honor  above  the  mantel.  The  parlor  was,  in  the  words  of 
Miss  Duval,  "the  abiding-place"  of  the  writer.  In  a  big 
leather  chair  to  the  left  of  the  hearth  he  would  lead  morn- 
ing prayer,  carry  on  conversation,  or  often  sit  in  silent 
thought,  his  fingers  placed  tip  to  tip  while  his  elbows  rested 
on  the  arms  of  the  chair.  At  table  the  novelist  sat  with  a 
son  at  either  side.  The  family  always  enjoyed  right  royal 
meals.  One  Christmas,  for  instance,  the  "very  pleasant 
dinner"  consisted  of  "ham  (old),  roast  turkey,  beefsteak, 
chine  and  cabbage,  oyster  soup,  sherry,  plum  pudding,  jelly, 
salsify,  etc. ' ' 

After  breakfast  Cooke  would  normally  devote  himself 
to  his  literary  projects.  Usually,  amid  a  cloud  of  smoke 
from  a  meerschaum  of  whose  color  he  was  very  proud,  he 
wrote  nervously  from  nine  until  two,  and  could  tolerate  no 
interruption.  Even  the  tapping  of  a  dog's  tail  upon  the 
floor  is  said  to  have  annoyed  him.  In  this  seclusion  he 
produced  copy  with  great  rapidity,  though  he  naturally 
proceeded  more  carefully  with  books  like  his  Virginia. 
In  spite  of  the  recommendation  of  a  Northern  friend,  he 
never  adopted  the  use  of  a  typewriter,  but  to  the  end  of 
his  life  his  manuscript  continued  pleasant  to  look  at  and 
easy  to  read.  Before  his  wife's  death  Cooke  had  made  a 
practice  of  showing  her  his  work  as  he  composed  it.  She 
was  not  a  thorough-going  critic,  but  was  often  helpful,  for 
instance  in  advising  against  the  insertion  in  Her  Majesty 
the  Queen  of  one  of  Susie's  baby  songs.  After  his  wife's 
death  he  often  sought  the  critical  judgment  of  his  niece. 
His  sister  Sal,  the  member  of  his  family  with  the  best 
critical  acumen,  was  unfortunately  rarely  near  him. 


142         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

At  two  o  'clock  Cooke 's  working  day  was  over.  The  after- 
noons and,  sometimes,  the  mornings,  were  given  to  the  man- 
agement of  the  farm  and  to  odd  jobs  in  the  lawn  or  the 
garden.  At  four  o'clock  the  family  carriage  always  stood 
at  the  door  for  the  daily  drive  to  Millwood,  the  post  office, 
five  miles  away;  and  the  novelist,  when  he  made  the  trip, 
would  indulge  in  friendly  chats  with  the  occupants  of  other 
vehicles.  In  addition  to  the  immediate  family  of  himself 
and  his  wife,  Cooke  had  many  friends  in  the  neighborhood. 
Notable  among  them  was  the ' '  humorous,  bright  and  happy ' ' 
Mr.  John  Page  of  the  nearby  estate,  '  *  Longwood. ' '  Twi- 
light would  often  find  either  the  Cookes  walking  across 
the  fields  toward  his  home,  or  him  and  his  two  daughters 
approaching  "The  Briars."  Other  friends  were  Captain 
William  Nelson  of  "Linden,"  Captain  William  Carter  of 
"The  Glen,"  and  Judge  John  Evelyn  Page  of  "Pagebrook" 
— all  three  of  whom  were  men  of  literary  taste  and  culture. 
In  the  congenial  atmosphere  afforded  by  an  occasional  ex- 
change of  visits  with  these  and  other  acquaintances,  Cooke 
carried  forward  his  career  as  a  man  of  letters. 

In  the  spring  following  the  death  of  his  wife  Cooke  again 
visited  New  York.  Here  he  became  for  the  first  time 
familiar  with  the  phonograph,  and  was  profoundly  im- 
pressed by  it.  He  regretted  to  the  end  of  his  life  that  he 
had  not  preserved  a  record  of  his  wife's  voice  which  he 
always  thought  very  beautiful  and  described  as  that  of 
May  Beverley  in  Surry  of  Eagle's-Nest.  The  contempla- 
tion of  the  new  scientific  marvel,  together  with  the  serious 
thought  induced  by  the  death  of  his  wife,  led  him  to  write 
a  novelette  entitled  Professor  Pressensee,  Materialist  and 
Inventor.  The  story  is  told  in  the  first  person.  The  nar- 
rator recounts  that  in  New  York,  in  1872,  he  "spends  an 
evening  at  the  Century  Club,  the  resort  of  authors,  artists 
and  others  of  similar  tastes."     Here  he  sees  a  Professor 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  143 

Pressensee  and  on  the  way  back  to  the  hotel  helps  protect 
him  from  three  thugs  who  are  trying  to  garrote  him.  Res- 
cuer and  rescued  become  acquainted  and  the  materialist 
professor  asks  the  narrator  to  speak  into  the  "phonometer" : 
"I  would  test  his  wonderful  machine;  but  what  should  I 
say  to  it  ?  I  was  not  in  a  mood  to  whisper  to  it  some  inane 
jest;  I  was  indeed  the  farthest  possible  from  mirth.  Re- 
volted by  the  fearful  materialism  of  the  inventor,  I  placed 
my  mouth  as  he  directed,  and  said  deliberately, '  You  assert, 
Professor  Pressensee,  that  there  is  no  personal  Deity — that 
God  is  matter,  and  matter  is  God ;  and  Heat  is  the  persistent 
Force  creating  all  things.  You  utter  a  philosophic  heresy. 
Behind  Heat  is  Law,  behind  Law  is  the  Absolute:  this 
Absolute  is  the  central  Soul  of  the  universe,  in  whose  spirit- 
ual image  you  and  I  are  made — the  living  God — before 
whom  we  will  stand  with  all  human  beings  we  have  loved 
or  hated,  to  answer  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.*  " 
Pressensee 's  answer  is  quoted  on  the  title-page  of  the  book : 
M  'I  am  Pressensee.  I  stand  on  that.  Who  or  what  made 
me  I  don't  know.  I  do  not  believe  in  your  future  state,  or 
your  Absolute  Soul.  Man  and  the  worm  are  the  same. 
There  is  no  Life  after  Death.  Life  is  heat.  Heat  goes  and 
death  comes — that  is  all  I  know  about  it.  "Witness  my  hand 
and  seal,  Pressensee." 

The  narrator  leaves  New  York  and  two  years  later  on  a 
recuperating  trip  through  the  Virginia  mountains  is  sur- 
prised to  discover  Pressensee  and  his  daughter.  The  pro- 
fessor has  lost  his  wife  and  is  very  much  reduced  in  health. 
He  has  refused  to  allow  his  daughter  to  receive  attentions 
from  Henry  Alford,  a  wealthy  and  manly  young  New 
Yorker  who  has  followed  them  to  Virginia  and  dwells  in 
a  cabin  in  the  mountains.  The  young  lady  gets  her  feet 
wet  and  nearly  dies  of  typhoid  pneumonia,  but  rallies  when 
her  father,  upon  the  advice  of  the  narrator,  allows  Alford 


144         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

to  see  her.  The  old  scientist  has  already  passed  from  total 
atheism  to  a  belief  in  a  vindictive  God,  and  actually  prays 
at  the  crisis  of  his  daughter's  illness.  After  a  few  years 
the  narrator  again  crosses  the  path  of  the  Pressensee  family. 
The  lovers  are  now  married  and  have  two  children,  and 
the  inventor,  at  last  a  believer  in  God,  is  devoting  his  time 
to  the  improvement  of  plows  and  harvesting  machines. 
The  novelette  can  perhaps  be  best  described  as  colorless  if 
not  insipid.  It  has  few  of  the  qualities  of  a  well-told  story, 
and  is  weak  as  a  piece  of  Christian  propaganda,  since  the 
reasons  for  Pressensee 's  assumption  of  faith  are  not  made 
apparent.  Professor  Pressensee  was  published  promptly 
(1878)  in  Harper's  Half -Hour  Series — a  collection  of  small, 
thin  volumes  which  retailed  at  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five 
cents  in  paper  covers  or  at  fifteen  cents  additional  in  cloth. 
Cooke's  next  work  of  fiction  of  book  length  was  a  novel- 
ette somewhat  of  the  type  of  Professor  Pressensee.  Like  its 
predecessor,  Mr.  Grantley's  Idea  appeared  in  the  dis- 
tinguished company  afforded  by  the  Half-Hour  Series,  and 
marked  another  point  scored  in  the  author's  effort  to  break 
away  from  the  melodramatic  tendency  that  so  thoroughly 
mastered  him  in  the  earlier  seventies.  The  plot  is  not 
wholly  a  new  one  to  Cooke,  but  shows  a  trend  toward  orig- 
inality. A  boy  snatches  a  necklace  from  a  little  girl,  is 
caught  by  Higgins,  the  jailer,  and  is  carried  before  the 
girl's  father,  a  magistrate.  The  latter  is  about  to  sentence 
the  culprit  to  be  whipped,  but  the  boy's  despair  at  his  an- 
ticipated disgrace  leads  the  girl  to  plead  for  him.  The  girl's 
father,  Mr.  Heath,  then  imposes  the  minimum  sentence — 
three  days  in  jail  on  a  bread  and  water  diet.  The  boy,  on 
the  way  to  jail  riding  horseback  behind  Higgins,  strikes 
him  suddenly  on  the  face,  and  effects  an  escape.  In  his 
haste  he  bruises  his  bare  feet  on  the  stones  in  the  road  and 
is  taken  into  a  carriage  by  a  kindly  Episcopalian  bishop  who 


LAST   YEARS— CONCLUSION  145 

happens  to  be  passing.  Ten  or  twelve  years  later  a  young 
pastor  is  called  to  the  village  where  the  Heaths  live  and 
dwells  with  them  while  the  parsonage  is  being  repaired. 
The  new  minister  is  Mr.  Grantley,  formerly  the  boy  rogue. 
In  carrying  out  his  "idea"  he  preaches  his  first  sermon  on 
the  text,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  and  goes  quietly  to  jail, 
where  he  remains  three  days.  Finally  he  discovers  that  he 
loves  Rose  Heath,  and  is  about  to  leave  his  charge,  when,  in 
an  accidental  meeting,  he  tells  her  his  story.  Rose  says  she 
loves  him,  draws  closer  to  him,  leans  her  head  upon  his 
breast,  and  speaks,  ' '  Can  a  husband  steal  from — his  wife  ¥ ' ' 
This  ending  would  seem  very  unlike  Cooke  were  it  not  for 
the  typical  explanation  that  the  boy  rogue  is  really  the  son 
of  a  Mr.  Calvert  Grantley,  a  very  dear  early  friend  of  Mr. 
Heath. 

The  real  advance  Cooke  achieved  in  Mr.  Grantley 's  Idea 
was  in  the  portrayal  of  rural  life  in  Virginia.  He  gives 
a  vivid  picture  of  a  chattering  crowd  around  the  church- 
door  on  Sunday.  The  practice  "was  not  wrong.  Bishop 
Meade  had  not  disapproved  of  it.  He  had  said,  'Oh,  there 
is  no  harm  in  it.  They  are  all  related  to  each  other,  and 
many  families  only  see  each  other  on  Sunday.'  "     "The 

Parish  of  B Becomes  Excited"  is  an  excellent  chapter 

filled  with  gentle  realistic  satire  directed  perhaps  at  the 
Clarke  village  of  Boyce.  If  the  standard  here  set  had  been 
maintained  by  the  entire  book,  the  novelette  might  have  been 
as  permanent  as  some  of  its  famous  associates  in  The 
Half -Hour  Series.  True  to  rural  Virginia  custom  is  the 
following  account  of  the  arrival  of  the  minister  and  of  the 
lawn-party  designed  to  yield  certain  needed  funds: 

"When  the  ladies  of  B parish  heard  that  a  new  minister  was 

coming  they  fell  into  a  flutter  of  curiosity  and  excitement.  There 
is  something  in  the  ministerial  office  which  attracts  their  sex.  The 
person  holding  it  is  necessarily  better  and  more   intellectual  than 


146         JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

other  people.  When  he  is  young,  he  is  all  the  more  interesting  and 
must  be  looked  after. 

"As  to  Mr.  Grantley,  he  was  said  to  be  young,  low-church  in  his 
views,  and  an  excellent  preacher.  One  or  two  of  the  ladies  of  the 
congregation  had  heard  him  preach  in  Richmond,  and  were  rap- 
turous about  him;  he  was  so  eloquent  and  fine-looking.  This  was 
dangerous.    The  new  rector  was  beginning  under  disadvantages. 

"In  a  material  point  of  view,  the  good  looks,  youth,  and  eloquence 
seemed  about  to  prove  an  advantage.  The  ladies  were  going  to  take 
the  young  Timothy  under  their  wing.  They  were  much  agitated. 
There  was  an  animated  discussion  at  a  tea-drinking  as  to  the  color 
of  his  hair.  Was  he  married?  There  was  a  determination  to  give 
him  a  cordial  reception. 

"Excitement  requires  a  safety-valve.  This  was  supplied  by  the 
dilapidated  condition  of  the  parsonage.  .  .  . 

".  .  .  It  would  not  do  to  have  the  new  rector  find  the  parsonage 
so  dilapidated.  He  had  no  children  to  protect  from  the  leaks,  but  his 
eyes  might  be  put  out  by  the  smoke  while  he  was  composing  his 
sermons.  Then  the  staircase  might  fall  beneath  him,  and  he  might 
break  his  neck,  which  would  be  frightful.  .  .  . 

"The  parish  was  poor,  the  worthy  people  having  little  or  nothing 
besides  food  for  their  families.  They  had  been  very  well-off  indeed 
once,  but  the  war  had  changed  things.  ...  It  thus  seemed  impos- 
sible to  raise  money  for  repairs,  and  it  was  gained  in  a  very  short 
time.  The  ladies  knew.  There  was  a  fair,  a  bazaar,  a  raffle,  a  series 
of  tableaux,  some  private-public  theatricals,  and  other  devices  were 
resorted  to.  Of  course,  the  theatre,  as  an  institution,  was  unutter- 
ably depraved,  but  this  was  quite  innocent;  and  as  to  the  raffling, 
that  was  strictly  pious — it  was  not  gambling  at  all,  considering  the 
object  in  view;  and  taking  five-dollar  notes  in  payment  for  single 
cigars  was  perfectly  honest — it  was  for  the  church. 

"By  such  nefarious  and  strictly  moral  means  the  ladies  soon 
found  themselves  in  possession  of  a  considerable  little  sum  of  money." 

As  early  as  1872,  Cooke  contemplated  writing  a  work  to 
be  called  ' '  The  Virginia  Sketch-Book. ' '  He  referred  to  this 
project  in  1873  and  in  1881,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  To 
the  June,  1876,  Harper* s,  however,  he  contributed  a  long 
illustrated  article  entitled  i(  Virginia  in  the  Revolution. ' ' 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  147 

The  Harpers  paid  Cooke  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
for  this  article,  and  were  evidently  pleased  with  its  recep- 
tion by  the  public,  for  in  1878  they  asked  the  author  to  pre- 
pare, for  issue  in  volume  form,  a  series  of  stories  from  Vir- 
ginia history.  For  this  work  Cooke  was  offered  only  two 
hundred  dollars,  but,  between  his  encyclopedia  articles  and 
his  semi-historical  novels,  he  was  already  familiar  with  the 
field  and  he  accepted  the  commission.  Stories  of  the  Old 
Dominion  was  published  in  1879  as  a  handsome,  profusely 
illustrated  octavo  volume.  The  twenty-one  stories,  begin- 
ning with  "The  Adventures  of  Captain  John  Smith"  and 
concluding  with  "The  Surrender  at  Yorktown,"  cover 
the  more  dramatic  episodes  of  Virginia  history  in  the 
Colonial  and  Revolutionary  periods,  and  are  entertainingly 
told.  When  not  true  to  facts,  they  are  true  to  tradition,  and 
show  Cooke  to  have  achieved  his  desire  of  doing  a  serious 
and  valuable  piece  of  work.  The  prologue,  "About  my 
Stories,"  and  the  impressive  epilogue,  "A  Last  Word  to 
the  Boys,"  indicate  specifically  the  character  of  the  book 
which  was  dedicated  to  the  author's  two  sons.  Cooke's 
style  was  always  clear  and  direct,  but  here  he  made  a 
special  effort  to  be  "simple."  The  unnecessary  pains  re- 
sulted in  no  greater  cramping  of  his  style  than  an  occasional 
superfluous  explanation  of  an  easy  term,  such  as:  "It  was 
proclaimed  on  coins,  that  is,  pieces  of  money."  A  few 
defects  of  this  nature  do  not,  however,  obscure  the  merit 
of  a  book  some  of  whose  chapters  are  charming  as  well  as 
vigorous.  Perhaps  it  was  no  hard  task  to  give  the  flavor 
of  romance  to  the  story  of  Captain  John  Smith ;  but  other 
figures  are  as  effectively  handled.  Very  vivid  is  the  picture 
of  Daniel  Morgan,  who  built  his  family  seat  with  the  labor 
of  the  hated  Hessians  and  said  in  old  age :  "To  be  young 
once  more.  ...  I  would  be  willing  to  be  stripped  naked 
and  hunted  through  the  Blue  Ridge  with  wild  dogs. ' '    The 


148         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

purpose  of  Cooke's  work  was  admirable;  he  wished  to  make 
great  and  good  men  of  the  young  Virginians  who  read  it. 
The  inspirational  epilogue  may  well  have  influenced  his 
younger  son  who,  in  "Walter  Reed's  yellow  fever  experi- 
ments in  Cuba,  offered  his  life  with  as  much  bravery  as  any 
ancestor  had  ever  shown  in  facing  a  human  enemy. 

Cooke's  next  book,  The  Virginia  Bohemians,  was  a  long 
novel  which  was  published  by  the  Harpers  in  1880.  It  was 
in  its  conception  another  serious  effort  at  producing  a  work 
of  value.  It  includes  elements  from  its  fictional  next  older 
brother,  Mr.  Grantley's  Idea,  but  can  best  be  described  as 
a  hybrid  partaking  of  the  nature  of  The  Virginia  Comedians 
on  one  hand  and  The  Heir  of  Gaymount  on  the  other.  For 
true  local  color,  The  Virginia  Bohemians  holds  primacy 
among  Cooke's  novels.  The  name  Bohemia,  given  to  a 
mountain  valley,  was  perhaps  suggested  by  "Arabia,"  the 
actual  name  of  such  a  valley  in  Clarke  County.  Across  the 
Blue  Ridge  from  Bohemia  lies — in  the  story — the  little 
village  of  Piedmont.  Piedmont,  of  course,  is  the  name  of 
a  broad  belt  through  Virginia,  and  the  village  is  intended  to 
be  typical.  The  two  churches,  the  town  pump,  the  black- 
smith shop  with  the  crowd  of  small  boys,  the  village  store 
with  a  porch  full  of  idlers  awaiting  the  stage — all  these  are 
excellently  presented,  especially  in  the  chapter  entitled 
*  *  Piedmont  wakes  up. "  This  part  of  the  novel  is  of  ' '  photo- 
graphic accuracy  to  Virginia  life,"  as  Margaret  Junkin 
Preston  described  it.  Of  nearly  equal  merit  is  Cooke's 
description  of  the  circus  and  its  effect  on  Piedmont.  Here, 
however,  he  exhibits  a  habit  which  is  one  of  the  main  char- 
acteristics of  another  Southern  writer,  Mrs.  Augusta  Evans 
Wilson :  he  parades  his  learning  in  numerous  literary  and 
historical  allusions  and  in  the  use  of  foreign  and  unangli- 
cized  words.  In  a  single  short  paragraph,  for  example, 
there  are  a  half-dozen  allusions,  and  "aura,"  "populus," 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  149 

" ennui,"  and  " elite,"  appear.  Of  the  plot,  nothing  need 
be  said  save  that  it  inclines  to  Cooke's  more  complicated 
type  and  fails  to  share  the  freshness  of  the  setting.  There 
are  mountaineers  and  impoverished  aristocrats,  sweet  young 
girls  and  an  adventuress,  a  New  Yorker,  old  soldiers,  a  few 
negroes  of  the  household  servant  class,  and  a  gallery  of 
circus  people.  The  chapter  entitled  "The  Old  Chapel"  is 
Cooke's  effort  to  give  the  immortality  of  print  to  a  beloved 
old  church  in"  Clarke.  Ellis  Grantham  suggests  Mr.  Grant- 
ley  of  Mr.  Grantl&y  's  Idea,  and  is  probably  Cooke 's  portrait 
of  the  ideal  minister.  General  Lascelles  is  an  excellent  por- 
trait; there  were  many  of  the  type  in  Virginia.  The  old 
general  is  always  glad  to  have  a  guest  in  his  study  so  that 
if  he  wishes  "to  ejaculate  denunciations  connected  with 
contemporary  politics,"  they  may  be  heard.  The  Big 
Monopoly  Railroad  is  attacked  as  the  cause  of  low  prices  of 
farm  produce  and  such  sentences  as  the  following  are  in- 
serted : ' '  Crossing  the  big  white  Chester  and  the  small  black 
Essex,  he  produced  a  species  like  the  Berkshire,  which  he 
said  was  the  best  hog  of  all."  Such  observations  of 
course  give  tedium  to  the  plot;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
serve  to  fill  out  Cooke's  picture  of  the  Virginia  of  1880. 

The  usually  unfavorable  opinion  of  the  Boston  critics, 
some  of  whose  hostile  criticism  Cooke  consolidated  in  the 
preface  to  Hilt  to  Hilt,  did  not  prevent  Houghton,  Mifflin 
and  Company  from  recognizing  the  substantial  merit  of 
the  Southern  author.  Cooke  was  asked  to  write  the  history 
of  Virginia  for  the  "American  Commonwealths"  series, 
edited  by  Horace  E.  Scudder.  He  spent  more  time  on  this 
history  than  on  any  book  he  ever  wrote  and  must  have 
taken  delight  in  going  systematically  through  the  older  his- 
tories and  other  sources,  and  refreshing  his  mind  on  the 
facts  and  legends  which  had  charmed  him  from  boyhood. 
Much  of  the  matter  from  Stories  of  the  Old  Dominion  is  of 


150         JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

course  repeated  in  Virginia;  A  History  of  the  People,  but 
the  composition  of  the  previous  work  did  not  unduly  influ- 
ence the  latter,  as  any  random  comparison  will  show.  With 
only  about  thirty-five  of  over  five  hundred  pages  devoted 
to  the  years  since  1800,  Virginia  is  strictly  a  history  of 
Colonial  Virginia  and  the  state's  part  in  founding  the 
nation.  For  the  first  two  centuries  of  Virginia  history, 
however,  Cooke's  volume  is  an  excellent  manual,  accurate 
enough  for  the  ordinary  reader  and  intensely  interesting. 
The  author  preserves  a  fine  balance  between  the  sweeping 
events  of  war  at  one  extreme  and  the  depiction  of  the  quiet 
life  of  the  people  at  the  other,  and,  without  a  vigilant  regard 
for  the  whole  truth,  succeeds,  like  Macaulay,  in  giving  to 
history  the  glamor  of  fiction. 

Upon  its  appearance  in  1883,  Virginia  commanded  wide 
and  favorable  attention.  The  New  York  Critic  spoke  of  its 
"interest,"  and  its  "earnest  desire  to  do  all  parties  and 
religions  perfect  justice."  The  New  York  Times  was  hos- 
tile, but  the  new  work  was  praised  by  the  Evening  Post  and 
the  Sun.  The  latter  was  especially  complimentary:  "It 
would  be  not  easy  to  speak  of  this  performance  in  terms  of 
too  hearty  commendation.  There  is  no  man  of  letters  in 
this  country  so  manifestly  qualified  for  the  task  here  under- 
taken, and  it  would  have  been  almost  impertinent  to  have 
selected  any  other."  On  February  4,  1884,  Stedman  wrote 
Cooke  a  very  interesting  letter,  urging  a  visit  to  New  York, 
and  giving  an  opinion  of  Virginia.  l ■  You  would  have  done 
well  to  use  less  of  the  'animated  present  tense,'  "  he  said; 
but  otherwise  he  liked  the  history.  ' '  The  narrative  is  clear, 
synthetic,  fluent,  and  vivid  in  every  way;  Virginians  and 
all  other  Americans  owe  you  a  debt  for  this  graceful  and 
scholarly  work." 

The  chapter  on  "Virginia  Literature  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century"  lists  a  number  of  books  and  writers  and  affords 


LAST    YEABS— CONCLUSION  151 

an  insight  into  the  literary  views  of  Cooke  who  concludes: 
"  Whatever  may  be  the  true  rank  of  the  literature,  it 
possesses  a  distinct  character.  It  may  be  said  of  it  with 
truth  that  it  is  nowhere  offensive  to  delicacy  or  piety;  or 
endeavors  to  instill  a  belief  in  what  ought  not  to  be  believed. 
It  is  a  very  great  deal  to  say  of  the  literature  of  any 
country  in  the  nineteenth  century."  Although  it  failed 
to  achieve  the  spectacular  initial  success  of  Surry  of 
Eagle' s-N est,  Virginia  has  had  the  steadiest  sale  of  any  of 
Cooke's  books.  To  the  edition  of  1903,  there  was  added  a 
supplementary  chapter  by  William  Gr.  Brown;  and  by  1915 
thirty  impressions  all  told  had  been  printed  and  approx- 
imately thirteen  thousand  copies  had  been  sold. 

Cooke  relieved  the  strain  of  his  arduous  work  on  Virginia 
by  the  composition  of  Fanchette  which  appeared  in  1883,  a 
few  months  ahead  of  the  history.  The  novel  was  issued  by 
James  R.  Osgood  and  Company  of  Boston  in  the  anonymous 
Round-Robin  series.  Around  a  device  on  the  title-page,  the 
books  of  this  series  carried  the  motto  ' '  Perhaps  it  may  turn 
out  a  song,  Perhaps  turn  out  a  sermon.' '  Fanchette  is 
neither  a  sermon  nor  a  song,  but  a  very  melodramatic  tale 
which  owes  a  part  of  its  plot  to  The  Virginia  Comedians, 
the  master  work  to  which  Cooke  so  often  turned  when  the 
candle  of  his  inspiration  was  dim  or  flickering.  Like 
Beatrice,  Fanchette  hates  the  stage,  goes  about  with  the 
actor  who  fathered  her  when  she  was  orphaned,  and  marries 
the  serious  person  who  performs  a  heroic  rescue.  The  plot 
of  Fanchette  is  complicated,  and  in  one  respect  repulsive. 
Detail  after  detail  leads  the  reader  to  suspect  that  Armyn 
is  Fanchette 's  father,  and  their  marriage  comes  as  a  dis- 
tinct shock.  Cooke  begins  the  story  with  a  view  of 
Washington  life  in  the  summer  of  the  year  of  a  Presidential 
election,  presumably  that  of  1880,  but  in  short  order  in- 
troduces a  ruined  Russian  prince,  an  oriental  prophet,  a 


152         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

lady  in  a  tower,  and  a  Rajah  of  Kabul.  One  is  reminded  of 
The  Heir  of  Gaymount  where  buried  treasure  crept  into 
what  purported  to  be  an  economic  study.  Cooke's  views 
on  contemporary  fiction  are  aired  in  a  conversation  between 
the  cultivated  middle-aged  Waring  and  the  ebullient 
Armyn.  Armyn  reads  ' '  a  good  deal  of  light  literature — it 
is  a  rest;  rarely  novels.' '  Waring  ironically  assures  him 
that  he  is  missing  "the  dissection  of  souls,  the  analysis  of 
the  human  heart. ' '  Fanchette  is  not  in  any  sense  a  notable 
story;  but  it  shows  the  development  of  Cooke's  character. 
A  bereaved  man  speaks  more  than  once  in  an  unobtrusive 
passage  in  the  frequently  subjective  Stories  of  the  Old 
Dominion,  and  in  Fanchette  there  is  occasionally  a  personal 
note.  The  author  was  doubtless  thinking  of  his  dead  wife 
when  he  wrote  passages  like  the  following : ' '  Given  a  gallant 
young  company,  and  a  cloudless  sky,  life  is  always  gay.  It 
is  only  when  the  sun  goes  down,  and  the  gray-beard  at  the 
helm  hears  the  moan  of  the  sea,  that  he  thinks  of  the 
unknown  port  to  which  he  is  steering."  In  Fanchette 
Cooke  has  more  than  his  usual  number  of  arresting  sen- 
tences. His  style  seems  pithier.  It  was  perhaps  benefited 
by  the  thoughtful  attention  given  to  the  history  of  Virginia. 
As  early  as  1859  Thomas  Dunn  English,  writing  to  Cooke 
relative  to  a  proposed  lecturing  tour  in  which  they  should 
"hunt  in  couples"  or  "drive  tandem,"  suggested  that  the 
Virginia  novelist  write  a  story  with  one  of  Captain  John 
Smith's  men  as  the  hero.  Ten  years  later  English  again 
suggested  the  subject,  this  time  in  more  detail.  *  *  There  is, ' ' 
he  wrote,  "one  subject  for  you,  which  you  have  not 
touched — for  the  reason  that  a  man  rarely  knows  the  most 
fertile  field  to  cultivate.  When  you  do  touch  it,  you  will 
make  a  success.  I  mean  the  early  settlement  of  the  Old 
Dominion.  When  you  make  up  your  mind  to  trot  out 
Captain  John  Smith  as  a  hero,  and  Pocahontas  as  a  heroine, 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  153 

let  me  know,  and  I  will  furnish  you  with  some  data  acces- 
sible enough  here,  but  out  of  your  reach  in  your  region. 
A  good  long  novel  of  that  period  is  a  desideratum — and  you 
are  the  man  to  do  it.  It's  an  opportune  time,  too.  The 
public  are  growing  tired  of  society  novels,  war  stories  and 
criminal  romances." 

With  this  encouragement  and  his  fondness  for  Colonial 
Virginia,  it  is  surprising  that  Cooke  did  not  sooner  weave  a 
romance  around  the  settlement  at  Jamestown.  At  last, 
however,  he  wrote  My  Lady  Pokahontas,  and  it  was  pub- 
lished by  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company  early  in  1885. 
As  in  The  Virginia  Comedians  and  Surry  of  Eagle' s-N est, 
Cooke  does  not  tell  the  story  directly,  but  merely  furnishes 
" notes"  to  a  "True  Relation  of  Virginia,  Writ  by  Anas 
Todkill,  Puritan  and  Pilgrim."  True  to  its  pretence  of 
being  a  document  of  the  early  seventeenth  century,  the  work 
is  studded  with  certain  linguistic  archaisms,  but  the  style  is 
essentially  modern  in  its  grace,  simplicity,  and  cleverness. 
Cooke  once  thought  of  writing  a  series  of  tales  localized  in 
the  Mermaid  Tavern,  and  in  My  Lady  Pokahontas  he  intro- 
duces that  famous  hostelry.  As  in  Her  Majesty  the  Queen, 
he  makes  his  quota  of  allusions.  Shakespeare  is  mentioned 
repeatedly,  and  Todkill  states  the  "fact"  that  "Master 
Shakespeare"  made  "his  strange  Caliban"  of  Rawhunt,  a 
dwarf  henchman  of  Powhatan,  and  "his  Miranda"  of 
Pocahontas.  Cooke's  story  is  agreeable  but  is  practically 
devoid  of  plot  apart  from  the  love  of  Pocahontas  and  Smith, 
and  the  Indian  girl's  transfer  of  her  affection  when  she 
is  convinced  that  the  famous  captain  is  dead.  My  Lady 
Pokahontas  occupies  a  prominent  place  in  the  long  list *  of 
novels,  plays,  and  poems  which  deal  with  its  titular  heroine. 

i  The  Pocahontas  story  is  thoroughly  discussed  in  Mr.  Jay  B. 
Hubbell's  fascinating  and  scholarly  forthcoming  work,  Virginia  Life 
in  Fiction. 


154         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

Master  Anas's  reminiscences  are,  however,  far  too  tenuous 
to  be  the  great  novel  for  which  Thomas  Dunn  English  had 
hoped. 

Later  in  1885  Cooke's  last  book,  The  Maurice  Mystery, 
was  brought  out  by  D.  Appleton  and  Company.  The  scene 
of  the  novel  is  laid  "in  what  is  called  the  Piedmont  region 
— that  is  to  say,  the  eastern  slope  of  the  long  range  of 
mountains  extending  from  Maryland  to  Northern  Georgia. ' ' 
The  time  is  1880,  but  the  "mystery"  goes  back  to  1860 
when  a  murder  was  committed  at  "  Mauricewood, ' '  an  old 
family  seat.  The  interest  of  the  book  is  divided  between  the 
Cary-Haworth  love  affair  and  the  discovery  of  the  mur- 
derer, the  plot  suggesting  Bulwer-Lytton  's  Devereux.  The 
Maurice  Mystery  contains  many  reflections  of  the  author's 
personality.  Cooke  discusses  life  after  death — a  problem 
that  seems  to  have  obsessed  him  after  the  loss  of  his  wife. 
He  refers  to  Pontmartin,  Browning,  and  other  writers  in 
whom  he  was  interested.  French  and  Latin  phrases  are 
printed  with  typographical  errors.  Romance  is  sought  by 
including  among  the  characters  an  opium  fiend  and  some 
adventurers  who  have  lived  in  South  America.  Such  well- 
worn  tricks  as  concealed  identity  and  mutilated  records  are 
again  made  use  of.  Despite  its  background  in  the  Piedmont 
region  of  the  South,  the  novel  has  no  local  color.  It  was 
reprinted  by  the  G.  W.  Dillingham  Company,  but  has  slight 
claim  to  continued  life. 

In  the  eighties  Cook  continued  writing  for  periodicals. 
True  to  his  democratic  instinct  he  wrote  occasionally 
throughout  his  life  unpaid-for  pieces  for  the  local  weeklies 
of  Clarke  and  other  counties.  Just  as  he  might  have  handed 
around  to  guests  a  basket  of  the  fruit  which  he  was  selling, 
so  he  let  his  literary  talent  serve  his  neighbors  as  well  as 
earn  him  a  livelihood.  He  now  produced  less  poetry  than 
before  the  war,  but  it  was  of  the  same  type,  fluent,  unpol- 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  155 

ished,  trite.  He  always  wished  to  visit  England,  and  in 
later  life  became  intimate  with  several  English  families  in 
the  county  of  Fauquier.  As  a  compliment  to  these  friends, 
he  wrote  "A  Sigh  for  England ;"  but  neither  subject  nor 
occasion  inspired  him  to  a  very  distinguished  composition: 

A  SIGH  FOR  ENGLAND 

If  I  could  choose  this  golden  morn 
Of  summer  when  the  days  are  long, 

My  music,  I  would  listen  to 
The  English  skylark's   song. 

If  I  could  see  what  more  than  all 

In  the  wide  world  I  long  to  see, 
Give  me  the  English  sunshine  dashed 

On  castle,  tower  or  tree. 

Only  to  tread  where  Shakespeare  trod, 

Only  to  see  the  daisies  grow, 
Only  to  hear,  in  English  trees, 

The  wind's  talk,  soft  and  low. 

But  swiftly  fly  the  passing  years, 

And  all  is  but  a  dream  at  best; 
I  dream  of  the  dear  English  fields 

To  waken  in  the  West. 

In  his  later  years  Cooke  wrote  less  frequently  for  the 
New  York  and  other  Eastern  publications.  On  the  contrary 
he  contributed  frequently  to  the  Detroit  Free  Press  and  the 
Southern  World.  He  produced,  as  usual,  stories,  serials, 
and  articles;  but  was,  for  new  bodies  of  readers,  largely 
working  over  his  old  productions.  Even  in  his  contribu- 
tions to  Harper's  his  loss  of  originality  was  striking.  "The 
Writer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence;  A  Familiar 
Sketch"  is,  for  instance,  a  reworking  of  the  data  given  in 


156         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

the  appendix  to  The  Youth  of  Jefferson,  and  also  owes 
something  to  Cooke's  encyclopedia  article  on  Jefferson.  Of 
the  stories  "The  Craniologist"  and  '/Owlet"  may  be 
noticed.  The  former  reflects  the  interest  in  science  and 
philosophy  which  was  characteristic  of  the  author's  later 
life.  The  latter  shows  how  Cooke  in  a  short  story  combined 
certain  incidents  of  his  experience  with  the  conventional 
ingredients    of   his    later    novels.      A    young    lawyer    of 

"R ,"  tired  from  "confinement  and  overwork"  during 

the  summer,  sets  out  on  horseback  for  the  Valley  of  Virginia 
where  he  has  "a  number  of  hospitable  and  warm-hearted 
relations."  On  his  journey  the  narrator  stops  at  the  cabin 
of  Daddy  Bayne  and  there  meets  "Owlet,"  a  pretty  but 
wholly  untaught  girl.  Later  "Owlet"  is  taken  into  the 
home  of  the  narrator's  aunt.  She  receives  polish  rapidly, 
proves  to  be  an  English  heiress,  and  is  married  to  the  man 
who  discovered  her  at  Daddy  Bayne 's. 

The  last  years  of  Cooke's  life  were  uneventful.  An  occa- 
sional visit  to  New  York  and  the  companionship  of  friends 
were  the  chief  diversions  from  his  settled  routine.  In  his 
pleasant  home  he  was  proud  of  his  children  who,  as  he 
justly  thought,  were  growing  up  with  honor  to  their  an- 
cestry. The  author  regularly  attended  Christ  Church  at 
Millwood.  Here,  with  his  boys,  he  occupied  the  family  pew, 
and  the  three  reverently  took  part  in  the  service.  After  the 
exercises  Cooke  would  indulge  in  a  neighborly  chat  with 
other  worshipers,  and  would  often  go  for  dinner  with 
Dr.  C.  Braxton  Bryan  at  the  rectory,  or  with  other  friends 
in  the  vicinity. 

In  the  summer  of  1886  Cooke's  sister  Sal  was  with  him. 
He  was  working  on  a  novel  destined  for  the  Detroit  Free 
Press,  but  Dr.  Favart's  Strange  Experiences  was  never 
completed.  Although  the  author  toward  the  end  of  Sep- 
tember became  feeble  and  languid,  neither  he  nor  his  family 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  157 

realized  how  ill  he  was  until  he  fainted  in  his  chair.  A 
physician  was  summoned,  but  for  three  days  Cooke  per- 
sisted in  an  effort  to  throw  off  his  illness.  At  last  he  could 
resist  no  longer;  he  yielded  to  his  malady  which  was 
typhoid  fever,  and,  very  ill  indeed,  was  put  to  bed.  He 
died  the  next  day,  September  27,  1886.  He  was  laid  to  rest 
beside  his  wife,  and  near  two  of  his  brothers,  in  the  Old 
Chapel  burying-ground.  In  memory  of  his  brilliant 
nephews,  the  last  of  whom  he  survived  by  nearly  a  decade, 
General  Philip  St.  George  Cooke  presented  to  the  Millwood 
Church  a  stained-glass  window.  The  lily  in  this  window 
has  a  dual  significance.  It  refers  to  the  descent  of  the 
Cookes  from  the  Esten  family  of  Bermuda,  and  at  the  same 
time  symbolizes  the  peace  that  at  length  came  to  a  family 
torn  asunder  by  the  Civil  War. 

Little  need  be  said  of  Cooke  the  man.  His  only  surviving 
son,  Robert,  once  wrote  to  his  sister  that  they  had  more 
right  to  be  proud  of  their  father 's  Christian  character  than 
of  his  literary  fame.  This  is  certainly  true.  Whatever 
may  be  said  of  Cooke's  talent  as  a  writer,  his  character  is 
above  reproach.  Thousands  of  pages  of  letters  and  other 
personal  manuscripts  contain  not  the  slightest  suggestion 
that  he  was  ever  inspired  by  any  save  the  highest  motives. 
' '  Time  had  wrought  no  change  in  his  nature, ' '  said  George 
Cary  Eggleston.  "He  remained  to  the  end  the  high- 
spirited,  duty-loving  man  of  honor  that  I  had  known  in 
my  youth;  he  remained  also  the  gentle,  affectionate  and 
unfailingly  courteous  gentleman  he  had  always  been." 
Cooke  was  as  pure  and  honorable  in  his  life  as  he  strove  to 
be  in  his  books.  He  was  from  first  to  last  a  democrat,  a 
gentleman,  and  a  Christian  in  the  best  sense  of  each  word. 

Although  Cooke's  death  was  widely  noted,  it  resulted  in 
no  serious  estimates  of  his  career,  and  probably  did  not 
impress  the  literary  world  as  much  as  it  would  have  done 


158         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

had  it  occurred  in  1859  or  in  1867.  In  the  former  year 
he  was  not  yet  thirty,  but  was  a  leader  in  the  Southern 
Literary  Messenger  group  of  writers,  and  had  made  an  im- 
portant contribution  to  the  literature  of  his  native  state. 
In  the  latter  year  he  was  at  the  apex  of  his  success  as  a 
writer  of  Civil  "War  stories  with  a  Southern  bias.  Despite 
the  merit  of  his  historical  work  in  the  eighties,  Cooke  did 
not  keep  as  fully,  in  the  public  eye  as  he  had  done.  In  his 
seclusion  at  "The  Briars"  he  lacked  vigorous  intellectual 
stimulus.  By  the  time  of  his  death  his  name  was  being 
crowded  out  of  the  better  magazines  by  younger  writers, 
who  were  more  careful  if  not  more  talented. 

Cooke  has  now  been  dead  a  third  of  a  century  and  it  is 
time  for  some  estimate  to  be  placed  on  his  work.  First  of 
all,  it  should  be  said  that  he  was  not  a  great  literary  genius 
and  neither  claimed  nor  thought  he  was.  He  always  re- 
ferred to  his  talent  as  less  than  that  of  his  eldest  brother, 
and  his  judgment  was  correct.  Philip  Pendleton  Cooke  was 
an  ill-starred  genius,  comparable  in  many  ways  to  Edgar 
Allan  Poe.  When  he  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-three  he  had 
produced  but  one  book.  In  striking  contrast,  John  Esten 
Cooke  was  enormously  prolific.  In  an  active  career  of  little 
more  than  three  decades  he  served  through  the  Civil  War, 
devoted  himself  in  his  later  years  to  the  management  of  a 
farm,  and  yet  produced  thirty  books,  together  with  an 
amount  of  fugitive  matter  which  would  fill  at  least  fifteen 
volumes.  Cooke's  fluency  was  the  cause  of  his  chief  faults. 
He  wrote  far  too  rapidly  for  his  training  and  talents. 
Unlike  Philip,  he  had  not  received  a  university  education, 
and  the  want  of  it  is  seen  in  much  that  he  wrote.  He  dis- 
liked revision,  and  consequently  shows  an  occasional  irreg- 
ular sentence.  He  produced  contiguous  passages  and  con- 
tiguous chapters  of  vastly  unequal  merit.  He  was  weak 
in  invention;  many  incidents  in  his  later  works  are  copied 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  159 

from  some  earlier  production.  He  failed  to  adapt  his 
characters  to  his  setting.  His  world-traveled,  melodramatic 
heroes  and  villains  are  out  of  place  in  a  Virginia  back- 
ground. Most  of  his  female  characters  are  of  one  pattern 
and  are  particularly  weak.  They  are  described  as  delicate, 
sprightly  '  *  little  beauties,"  but  to  the  reader  they  appear 
immature  and  colorless.  Throughout  his  career  Cooke 
made  the  mistake  of  writing  on  subjects  with  which  he 
was  not  wholly  familiar.  According  to  his  lights,  how- 
ever, his  justification  is  complete.  Under  no  disillusion 
in  regard  to  his  genius,  he  would  turn  from  one  species 
of  composition  to  another,  as  a  farmer  might  change 
his  crops,  with  the  idea  of  financial  profit.  In  his  later 
years  his  worst  work  paid  best.  This  seeming  anomaly  en- 
couraged a  natural  taste  for  sentimentality  and  sensation- 
alism and  shut  him  off  from  achieving  his  finer  possibilities. 
Dr.  C.  Braxton  Bryan  bears  testimony  to  the  fact  that  the 
author  more  than  once  said,  "I  have  been  obliged  to  stop 
what  I  was  doing  and  write  something  for  checks." 
Cooke,  nevertheless,  achieved  more  than  a  modicum  of  dis- 
tinction. His  style  is  uniformly  clear  and  agreeable.  He 
usually  had  an  eye  for  the  picturesque.  His  movement  is 
rapid  and  his  dialogue  is  normally  true  to  life.  In  every- 
thing he  wrote,  there  is  an  element  of  sprightliness,  dash, 
and  manliness.  Cooke  was  a  gentleman-romancer  who 
wrote  while  the  spell  of  composition  was  upon  him  and 
devoted  himself  to  his  family  and  friends  instead  of  revising 
his  manuscript. 

In  spite  of  the  fairly  brief  span  of  his  life,  Cooke  was 
undoubtedly  the  most  representative  Virginian  who  has 
ever  earned  a  livelihood  by  writing.  Born  in  1830  in  what 
is  now  West  Virginia,  he  knew,  almost  at  first  hand,  the 
Colonial  border.  He  lived  in  the  Richmond  of  the  fifties. 
He  saw  the  full  stress  of  the  Civil  War.    Later  as  a  fairly 


160         JOHN    ESTEN    COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

well-to-do  farmer  he  shared  the  position  of  thousands  of 
modern  Virginians. 

Cooke  was  not  only  a  typical  Virginia  writer,  but  no 
other  before  or  since  has  given  such  whole-hearted  devotion 
to  the  service  of  the  Old  Dominion.  In  his  Stories  of  the 
Old  Dominion  and  Virginia  he  swept  the  history  of  the  state 
from  1607  to  1800,  and  in  his  fiction  he  made  use  of  early 
colonial,  late  colonial,  Revolutionary,  ante-bellum,  civil  war, 
and  post-bellum  settings.  He  chose  for  his  background  the 
border  as  well  as  the  capital ;  and,  throughout  all  his  works, 
his  spirit  toward  his  native  state  was  one  of  loyalty  and 
love.  When  the  present  seemed  sordid  in  1850,  he  sought 
romance  in  the  past.  When  Virginia  was  faced  with  dis- 
aster in  the  dark  days  following  the  Civil  War  he  sought, 
in  his  way,  to  help  solve  her  problems. 

On  the  whole,  however,  Cooke  was  not  so  much  the  advo- 
cate, as  the  social  historian,  of  Virginia.  "My  aim,,,  he 
wrote,  "has  been  to  paint  the  Virginia  phase  of  American 
society,  to  do  for  the  Old  Dominion  what  Cooper  has  done 
for  the  Indians,  Simms  for  the  Revolutionary  drama  in 
South  Carolina,  Irving  for  the  Dutch  Knickerbockers,  and 
Hawthorne  for  the  weird  Puritan  life  of  New  England.' ' 
In  this  worthy  ambition  Cooke  was  more  than  partially 
successful.  His  pictures  of  older  Virginia,  inaccurate  as 
they  may  be  in  minor  details,  have  been  accepted  by  such 
modern  writers  as  Thomas  Nelson  Page.  His  histories  and 
biographies  greatly  influenced  the  Susan  Pendleton  Lee 
histories  of  the  United  States  which  have  secured  an  im- 
mense circulation  through  their  use  in  Southern  public 
schools.  Cooke  in  fact,  partly  through  his  own  books  but 
more  particularly  through  his  influence,  is  responsible  for 
the  idea  of  older  Virginia  held  by  the  Virginians  of  today. 

Cooke  is  not  only  intrinsically  important  as  a  typical 
and  influential  Virginia  writer,  but  is  a  definite  link  in  the 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  161 

development  of  literature  pertaining  to  Virginia.  His  ulti- 
mate literary  ancestor  was  Scott,  whose  works  were  read  to 
him  in  childhood,  and  he  is  a  younger  brother  of  Simms. 
William  Alexander  Caruthers,  who  was  writing  during 
Cooke's  boyhood,  was  his  immediate  predecessor  as  a  his- 
torical novelist  of  Virginia.  The  influence  of  these  writers 
can,  however,  be  easily  exaggerated.  Cooke  shared  their 
general  purpose  rather  than  imitated  any  particular  book 
or  method.  He,  in  turn,  has  handed  down  the  tradition — 
especially  to  Miss  Mary  Johnston  and  Mrs.  Burton  Harri- 
son. The  Long  Boll  and  Cease  Firing  invite  comparison 
with  Surry  and  Mohun,  just  as  Flower  de  Hundred  in  its 
very  title  recalls  Henry  St.  John. 

In  the  eighties  Cooke  was  an  exponent  of  the  same  type 
of  novel  he  wrote  in  the  fifties.  An  apologia,  written  a 
short  while  before  his  death,  has  been  widely  published: 
"I  still  write  stories  for  such  periodicals  as  are  inclined  to 
accept  romance,  but  whether  any  more  of  my  work  in  that 
field  will  appear  in  book-form  is  uncertain.  Mr.  Howells 
and  the  other  realists  have  crowded  me  out  of  popular 
regard  as  a  novelist,  and  have  brought  the  kind  of  fiction 
I  write  into  general  disfavor.  I  do  not  complain  of  that, 
for  they  are  right.  They  see,  as  I  do,  that  fiction  should 
faithfully  reflect  life,  and  they  obey  the  law,  while  I  can- 
not. I  was  born  too  soon,  and  am  now  too  old  to  learn 
my  trade  anew.  But  in  literature,  as  in  everything  else, 
advance  should  be  the  law,  and  he  who  stands  still  has  no 
right  to  complain  if  he  is  left  behind.  Besides,  the  fires 
of  ambition  are  burned  out  of  me,  and  I  am  serenely  happy. 
My  wheat-fields  are  green  as  I  look  out  from  the  porch  of 
'The  Briars/  the  corn  rustles  in  the  wind,  and  the  great 
trees  give  me  shade  upon  the  lawn.  My  three  children  are 
growing  up  in  such  nurture  and  admonition  as  their  race 
has  always  deemed  fit,  and  I  am  not  only  content,  but  very 


162         JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

happy,  and  much  too  lazy  to  entertain  any  other  feeling 
toward  my  victors  than  one  of  warm  friendship  and  sincere 
approval."  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  very  fact  that 
Cooke  had  never  discarded  the  romantic  tradition,  led  him 
to  be  regarded  as  a  pioneer  in  the  romantic  revival  which 
was  headed  by  Stevenson. 

In  concluding,  an  answer  should  perhaps  be  made  to  the 
hypothetical  question,  what  is  the  status  of  John  Esten 
Cooke  in  1922?  Professor  Pattee,  a  leading  historian  of 
recent  American  literature,  rates  Cooke  as  "the  best  nov- 
elist the  South  produced  during  the  earlier  period."  It 
must  be  admitted,  nevertheless,  that  to  most  Americans 
Cooke  is  either  unknown  or,  at  most,  a  name.  A  few 
Northerners  and  a  goodly  number  of  Southerners,  have, 
however,  read  Surry  of  Eagle' s-N est,  and  perhaps  Mohun 
and  Hilt  to  Hilt.  Others  have  read  one  or  both  of  the  mili- 
tary biographies.  In  the  six  months  ending  April  30,  1914, 
ninety-two  copies  of  Virginia  and  thirty-two  copies  of  My 
Lady  Pokahontas  were  sold.  At  the  same  time  fourteen 
volumes,  in  the  form  of  cheap  reprints,  were  on  sale  by  the 
G.  W.  Dillingham  Company.  The  recent  failure  of  this 
house  has  practically  put  an  end  to  the  sale  of  Cooke's 
books,  but  will  help  his  future  reputation.  On  the  Dilling- 
ham list  he  was  in  poorer  company  than  he  deserved,  and 
was  brought  into  disfavor  by  an  ungrammatical,  inaccurate, 
widely  circulated  advertisement. 

A  thoroughly  impartial  appraisal  of  Cooke  results  in  a 
protest  against  his  being  wholly  forgotten.  The  question 
then  arises,  what  should  be  salvaged  from  an  abundance 
threatened  with  oblivion?  Cooke's  poetry  is  not  of  en- 
during value;  his  faults  are  unduly  conspicuous  in  his 
shorter  prose  articles;  and  his  lives  of  Lee  and  Jackson 
have  already  been  superseded.  In  spite  of  their  excellence, 
Virginia  and  Stories  of  the  Old  Dominion  must  inevitably 


LAST    YEARS— CONCLUSION  163 

await  the  fate  of  the  biographies.  The  choice  is  then  nar- 
rowed down  to  the  novels.  Perhaps  a  half-score  of  these 
deserve  to  live.  The  two  volumes  of  The  Virginia  Come- 
dians, Surry,  and  Mohun  should  by  all  means  be  kept  con- 
tinually available  for  American  readers.  The  first  is 
Cooke's  best  novel;  it  is  a  sweeping  portrayal  of  a  field  he 
knew  and  loved  when  he  was  not  yet  tired  from  over- 
production. Surry  and  Mohun  were  his  most  popular 
books,  and  are  still  his  best  remembered  works.  They  con- 
tain an  essential  record  of  his  personal  Civil  War  experi- 
ence, and  give  almost  as  well  as  the  biographies  his  impres- 
sions of  the  great  generals.  These  two  novels — compounded 
as  they  are  of  history,  adventure,  and  idealism — are  further- 
more of  a  type  well  adapted  to  the  youthful  readers  of  the 
future.  Cooke,  it  would  seem  in  conclusion,  will  be  remem- 
bered chiefly  for  The  Virginia  Comedians,  Surry  of  Eagle's- 
Nest,  and  Mohun.  With  these  four  volumes  saved  from  ob- 
livion, he  will  continue  to  be  known  as  a  social  historian  of 
late  Colonial  Virginia,  and  as  a  romantic  Confederate  cap- 
tain, who  used  his  military  experience  as  the  basis  of  fiction. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BOOKS 


In  the  text  subtitles  have  been  given  and  important  later 
editions  have  been  discussed. 

1.    1854.    Leather  Stocking  and  Silk.     New  York:    Harper 
and  Brothers. 
2,  3.  1854.     The  Virginia  Comedians.    (2  vols.)    New  York:  D. 
Appleton  and  Company. 

4.  1854.     The  Youth  of  Jefferson.     New  York:     Redfield. 

5.  1855.     Ellie.     Richmond:  A.  Morris. 

6.  1856.     The  Last  of  the  Foresters.     New  York:  Derby  and 

Jackson. 

7.  1859.     Henry  St.   John,   Gentleman.   New  York:   Harper 

and  Brothers. 

8.  1863.     The  Life  of  Stonewall  Jackson.     Richmond:  Ayres 

and  Wade. 

9.  1866.     Stonewall  Jackson:   A   Military  Biography.     New 

York:  D.  Appleton  and  Company. 

10.  1866.     Surry   of    Eagles'-Nest.     New   York:    Bunce    and 

Huntington. 

11.  1867.     Wearing  of  the  Gray.    New  York :  E.  B.  Treat  and 

Company. 

12.  1868.     Fairfax.  New  York :  G.  W.  Carleton  and  Company. 

13.  1869.     Hilt   to   Hilt.     New   York:    G.    W.    Carleton   and 

Company. 

14.  1869.     Mohun.     New  York:  F.  J.  Huntington  and  Com- 

pany. 

15.  1870.     Hammer  and  Rapier.  New  York:  Carleton. 

16.  1870.     The  Heir  of  Gaymount.     New  York:  Van  Evrie, 

Horton   and   Company. 

17.  1871.    A  Life  of  Gen.   Robert  E.  Lee.     New  York:   D. 

Appleton  and  Company. 
164 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  165 

18.  1872.    Out  of  the  Foam.     New  York:   G.   W.   Carleton 

and  Company. 

19.  1872.    Dr.  Vandyke.     New  York:  D.  Appleton  and  Com- 

pany. 

20.  1873.     Her  Majesty  the  Queen.     Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lip- 

pincott  and  Company. 

21.  1874.     Pretty  Mrs.  Gaston,  and  other  stories.    New  York: 

Orange  Judd  Company. 

22.  1875.    Justin  Harley.    Philadelphia :  Claxton,  Remson  and 

Haffelfinger. 

23.  1877.     Canolles.    Toronto :  Belford  Brothers. 

24.  1878.     Professor    Pressensee.      New    York:    Harper    and 

Brothers. 

25.  1879.     Mr.    Grantley's   Idea.     New   York:      Harper   and 

Brothers. 

26.  1879.     Stories  of  the  Old  Dominion.    New  York:   Harper 

and  Brothers. 

27.  1880.     The  Virginia  Bohemians.  New  York:  Harper  and 

Brothers. 

28.  1883.     Fanchette.  Boston :  James  R.  Osgood  and  Company. 

29.  1883.     Virginia.   Boston:  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company. 

30.  1885.     My  Lady  Pokahontas.   Boston:   Houghton,   Mifflin 

and  Company. 

31.  1885.     The  Maurice  Mystery.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  and 

Company. 

MAGAZINE   ARTICLES 

At  various  periods  during  his  life  Cooke  contributed  more  or 
less  regularly  to  over  forty  periodicals,  most  of  which  have  been 
referred  to  in  the  text.  Below  is  given  a  bibliography  for  four 
magazines.  The  four  are  chosen  partly  because  of  their  literary 
importance  and  consequent  present-day  accessibility,  but  chiefly 
because  of  the  fact  that  they  received  a  large  portion  of  Cooke's 
most  carefully  composed  fugitive  work. 

The  Southern  Literary  Messenger 

Editorials  and  short  book  notices  are  not  included  in  this  list. 

1848:  November,  "Avalon." 

1849:  January,  "Eighteen  Sonnets,  With  Notes." 


166         JOHN   ESTEN    COOKE,   VIRGINIAN 

1850:  June,  "Thomas  Carlyle  and  his  'Latter-Day  Pam- 
phlets';" July,  "The  Dawning;"  October,  "Levon:  A  Memory." 

1851:  February  and  March,  "Shadows  of  the  Mountain 
Pine;"  March,  "Deliciee  Orientis;"  April,  "To  a  Portrait," 
"Recollections  of  Sully,"  To  and  ;"  May,  "To  Kos- 
suth;" August,  "Hungary;"  September,  "Winderhaus  and  the 
Gentleman  in  Black,"  "Indian  Wars  of  Western  Virginia;" 
October  and  November,  "Shadows  of  the  Pine  Forest." 

1852:  January,  "The  Story  of  Good  Mr.  Bear;"  May, 
"Peony:  A  Tale  for  the  Times;"  July,  "Clouds,"  "My  River 
Rhine;"  August- September,  "Chronicles  of  the  Valley  of  Vir- 
ginia;" August,  "I  Left  the  South  Behind  Me,"  "Autumn 
Days,"  "Country  Notes;"  December,  "A  Handful  of  Autumn 
Leaves." 

1853:  January,  "Peachblossom  and  Ladyslipper,"  "Psyche 
looked  on  me  with  her  luminous  eyes;"  February,  "Sieur 
Roger;"  June,  "An  Angling  Reminiscence;"  July,  "News  From 
Farnienteland;"  December,  "Autumn  Dreams." 

1854:  July,  "The  Plover  Loves  the  Moor;"  August,  "Lie  Still, 
Poor  Heart;"  October-January  (1855),  "The  Last  Days  of  Gas- 
ton Phoebus ;"  December,  "Invocation." 

1855:  May-September,  "A  Kingdom  Mortgaged;"  December, 
"Virginia  Woods." 

1856 :  January,  "Under  the  Grassland  Oaks,"  "The  Winds  of 
Childhood;"  July,  "Sully's  Forest  Days,"  "Virginia  Girls  and 
Gallants  Four  Score  Years  Ago." 

1857:  April,  "Kane;"  May,  "In  Love;"  July,  "Again,"  "The 
Story  of  Carteret,"  "I  Often  See  in  Happy  Dreams;"  Novem- 
ber, "Cherry's  Christmas  Tree;"  December,  "Sully's  Woodland 
Dreams." 

1858:  April,  "Frank  Lee's  Engagement,"  "Private  Opinions 
of  Joyeuse  Tristan,  Gent.;"  "O  Fairy-Like  Child  of  May;"  May, 
"May  Days  at  Rackrack  Hall,"  "Honoria  Vane;"  June,  "Wan- 
derings on  the  Banks  of  the  York;"  September,  "The  Portfolio 
of  a  Rambler  in  Virginia ;"  November,  "My  Three  Pipes,"  "Un- 
published Mss.  from  the  Portfolios  of  the  Most  Celebrated 
Authors"  (reprint). 

1859:  January,  "The  Cynic;"  April-December,  "Greenway 
Court;"  April,  "The  Song  of  Loronnaye;"  May,  "My  Powhatan 
Pipe,"  "Crazy  and  Sane." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  167 

I860:  January,  'The  Moon  is  in  the  Sky;"  February,  "Rec- 
ollections of  a  Contented  Philosopher,"  "Phoebe's  Wedding 
Night"  (reprint);  April,  "Thomas  Jetferson"  (reprint);  July- 
October,  "The  Knight  of  Espalion." 

1862:  February  and  March:  "Waiting  for  Florella,"  "Day 
Dreaming." 

Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine 

1853:  August,  "Virginia:  Past  and  Present;"  December, 
"Minuet  and  Polka." 

1854:  March,  "The  Cocked  Hat  Gentry." 

185,5:  May,  "The  Dames  of  Virginia." 

1856:  April,  "How  I  Courted  Lulu;"  June,  "Annie  at  the 
Corner;"  July,  "News  from  Grassland;"  August,  "John  Ran- 
dolph;" November,  "The  Tragedy  of  Hairston." 

1857:  June,  "Greenway  Court." 

Harpers 

1856:  January,  "Baby  Bertie's  Christmas;"  April,  "How  I 
Was  Discarded;"  September,  "Fanny  and  Myself,"  "In  Me~ 
moriam." 

1857:  April,  "The  Story  of  a  Huguenot's  Sword;"  July,  "The 
Two  Kates;"  November,  "Lost;"  December,  "Our  Christmas  at 
the  Pines." 

1858:  June,  "A  Nest  of  Cavaliers;"  July,  "Nelly's  Slipper;" 
August,  "The  Red  Bracelet." 

1859:  January,  "Only  a  Woman's  Hair;"  October,  "Two  Men 
and  a  Woman." 

1861:  January,  "A  Dream  of  the  Cavaliers;"  March,  "A 
Joyous  Frenchman  in  Virginia." 

1876:  June,  "Virginia  in  the  Revolution;"  July,  "The  Writer 
of  the  Declaration." 

1877:  January,  "A  Craniologist ;"  April,  "Old  Wiley." 

1878:  July,  "Owlet;"  August,  "The  White  Sulphur  Springs." 

1879:  February,  "The  Moonshiners;"  June,  "Alexander 
Spottswood." 

1880:  August,  "A  Boating  Adventure." 

1881:  November,  "The  Sumac-Gatherers." 

1884:  June,  "Grace  Sherwood,  the  One  Virginia  Witch;" 
December,  "Toinette." 


168         JOHN   ESTEN   COOKE,    VIRGINIAN 

Appleton's  Journal 

1869:  May  29,  "My  Wicker-Seat;"  August  14,  "Royalty  in 
Miniature;"  September  25,  "The  Horseshoe  Knights;"  Decem- 
ber 4,  "Washington's  Wedding." 

1870:  January  22,  "The  Sword  and  Surveying  Instruments 
of  Washington;"  July  2,  "Authors  and  Their  Work;"  Novem- 
ber 26,  "A  Struggle  for  Life." 

1871:  February  11,  18,  "The  Natural  Bridge;"  November  4, 
"Some  Old  Virginia  Houses;"  November  18,  "Alexandre  Du- 
mas;" December  23,  "Old  Blandford  Church;"  December  30, 
"Flower  of  the  Daisy." 

1872:  April  20,  "Old  Virginia  Manners;"  September  21, 
"The  Last  Hours  of  Barras;"  October  5,  "The  Cotton-Mouth." 

1873:  February  8,  "M.  Thiers  in  His  Study"  (From  the 
French  of  A.  de  Pontmartin) ;  July  19,  "Historic  Houses  in  the 
Shenandoah;"  August  16,  "The  Author  of  'Swallow  Barn';" 
September  12,  "Mistletoe  Hall;"  December  20,  "The  Braddock 
House." 

1874:  January  3,  "Bonny  Jean;"  January  24,  "Stratford 
House;"  February  7,  "Miss  Muhlbach  and  Her  System;"  April 
4,  "Gunston  Hall;"  May  2,  "An  Author's  Way  of  Working;" 
June  13,  "Pontmartin,  the  French  Critic;"  August  15,  "Christ 
Church,  Alexandria;"  August  22,  "Jefferson  as  a  Lover;" 
August  29,  "Cooper's  Indians;"  November  28,  "Old  St.  Peter's 
Church;"  December  5,  "The  Moore  House,  Yorktown;"  De- 
cember 12,  "Heaving  Bricks." 

1875:  January  9,  "The  Personal  Character  of  General  Lee;" 
March  20,  "The  Thursdays  of  Madame  Charbonneau;"  July 
17,  "Fairy  Fingers:  A  Few  Notes  for  My  Friends  the  Paint- 
ers;" December  11,  18,  25,  "Suzanne  Gervaz:  A  Maid  of  the 
Gevaudan"  (Adapted  from  "Les  Corbeaux  du  Gevaudan"  by  de 
Pontmartin). 

1876:  February  5,  12,  "A  New  View  of  Jacques  and  Touch- 
stone;" June  24,  "Book-Making  in  Paris." 

1877:  August,  "My  Lady  Mary." 

1878:   April,  "The  Wonderful  Family." 

1879:  September,  "An  Hour  With  Thackeray." 


INDEX 


Alden,  Henry  Mills,  121 

Ambler,  Jacqueline,  49 

"Annie  at  the  Corner,"  74,  134 

Appleton,  W.  H.,  96 

Appleton's  Journal,   132,   134,   136 

Ashby,  Turner,  91 

Athenaeum,  The,  34 

"Avalon,"  23 

"Baby  Bertie's  Christmas,"  58 
Bagby,  G.  W.,  69,  70,  111 
Bancroft,  George,  66 
"Barry  and  Courtlandt  the  Tall," 

29 
Bateman,  Ellen,  39 
Bateman,  Kate,  39,  40 
Batemans,  The,  31,  35,  38,  39 
Battles  of  Virginia,  The,  100 
Beatrice  Hallam,  44 
Beauregard,  P.  G.  T.,  118 
Benjamin,  Judah  P.,  89 
Bonnybel  Vane,  58 
Briggs,  W.  H.,  46 
Brown,  W.  G.,  151 
Browning,  Robert,  92,  154 
Bryan,  C.  Braxton,  156,  159 
Bryant,   William   Cullen,  66 
Bulwer-Lytton,  Edward,  154 
Bunce,  O.  B.,  121,   136 
Bur  well,  Rebecca,  49 
Burwell,  Willie  Anne,  See  Cooke, 

Mrs.  Philip  Pendleton 

Gandlles,  133,  137,   138 
Captain  Ralph,  44 
Carleton,  G.  W.,   121,   129 


Carlyle,  Thomas,  19,  24,  33,  45 
Carter,  William,  142 
Carter,  Mrs.  William,   140 
Caruthers,  William  Alexander,  161 
Cary  of  Hunsdon,  137 
Chevalier  Merlin,  The,  8 
Christian  Secretary,  The,  52 
"Clouds,"   66,   67 
Coad,  Oral  S.,  40 
Collins,  W.  Wilkie,  134 
Conquest  of  ~New  Mexico  and  Cal- 
ifornia, 4 
Cooke,  Anne,  6 
Cooke,     Edmund     Pendleton     (I), 

6,  7 
Cooke,    Edmund    Pendleton    (II), 

113,   131 
Cooke,   Edward  St.   George,   6,   7, 

18,  63 
Cooke,    Flora,    See    Stuart,    Mrs. 

J.  E.  B. 
Cooke,  Henry  Pendleton,   6,   7,   9, 

11,  63 
Cooke,  John  Esten  (I),  3 
Cooke,  John  Esten    (II), 

passim, 

birth  and  ancestry,  1  ff. 

begins  practice  of  law,  26 

^becomes    ct    professional    au- 
thor, 29 

joins    the    Episcopal    Church, 
47 

in  the  Civil  War,  73  ff. 

marriage,  110 

residence  at  "The  Briars,"  112 

death,  157 


169 


170 


INDEX 


Cooke,  Mrs.  John  E&ten,  91,   110- 

113,  119,  139-141 
Cooke,  John  Rogers  (I),  5,  6,  10, 

12,    14,   18,   20,   22,   26,   30,   48, 

54,  63,  82 
Cooke,     Mrs.     John     Rogers,     See 

Pendleton,   Maria 
Cooke,  John  Rogers    (II),  75 
Cooke,  Mary  Pendleton  (Mrs.  Ste- 

ger),  6,  11,  89,  111 
Cooke,  Nathaniel   (I),  2 
Cooke,  Nathaniel    (II),  78 
Cooke,  Pennie,  82 
Cooke,  Philip  Pendleton,  1,  6-9,  17, 

21,  23,  25,  28,  29,  86,  113,  158 
Cooke,  Mrs.  Philip  Pendleton,  10 
Cooke,   Philip   St.    George,   4,   75, 

96,  157 
Cooke,    Robert    Powel    Page,    113, 

148,  157 
Cooke,  Sarah  Dandridge  (Mrs.  Du- 
val), 6,  11,  31,  112,  140,  141,  156 
Cooke,  Stephen,  2,  6 
Cooke,   Mrs.    Stephen,    See   Esten, 

Catherine 
Cooke,     Susan     Randolph      (Mrs. 

Lee),  113,  114,  124,  141,  157 
Cooper,   James   Fenimore,   34,   38, 

160 
"Craniologist,  The,"  156 
Critic,  The  (N.  Y.),  150 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  65,  66 
Dandridge,  Ned,  86 
Daniel,  John  M.,  90 
Dickens,  Charles,  31,  71,  95 
Dispatch,  The   (Richmond),  31 
Dr.  Favart'8  Strange  Experiences, 

156 
Dr.  Vandyke,  64,  132,  133,  135 
"Dream  of  the  Cavaliers,  A,"  67 


Dumas,  Alexandre  pere,  19,  25,  33 
Duval,  Mariah  Pendleton,  140,  141 
Duyckincks,  the,  33,  68,  96 

"Early  Haunts  of  Washington,"  32 
Early,  Jubal  A.,  81,  98 
Eggleston,  George  Cary,  63,  76,  79, 

95,  109,  112,  116,  121,  135,  136, 

157 
"Eighteen  Sonnets,"  23 
Elite,  21,  53-56,  58,  71,  132,  135 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  19 
English,    Thomas    Dunn,    68,    152, 

154 
Estcourt,  64 
Esten,  Catherine,  2,  3 
Esten,  John,  2 
Evan  of  Foix,  24-26,  53 
Evening  Post,  The  (N.  Y.),  150 

Fairfax,  13,  32,  37,  38,  53,  71,  129, 

133 
Fairfax,  Lord,  12,  32,  37 
Falkland,  64 
Fanchette,  151,   152 
Field  and  Fireside,  65 
"Florence  Vane,"  8 
Free  Press  (Detroit),  137,  155,  156 
Froissart  Ballads,  8,  25 

Gaston  Phoebus,  25,  26 
Giddy,  Mammy,  10,  31,  35,  82 
Godey's,  29 
Goodrich,  Sallie,  110 
Gordon,   John  B.,  81 
Grant,  U.  S.,  100,  101 
Green,  John  Richard,  60 
"Greenway  Court,"  32 
Greenway  Court,  37 
Griswold,  Rufus  W.,  29 


INDEX 


171 


Hallam,  Lewis,  39 
Halleek,  Fitz-Greene,  68 
Hammer  and  Rapier,  100-103,  124 
"Handful  of  Autumn  Leaves,  A," 

33 
Harper,  J.  W.,  121 
Harper's,   29,   31,   46,   57,   66,   67, 

146,  155 
Harrison,  Mrs.  Burton,  59,  161 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  160 
Hayne,  Paul  Hamilton,  38,  64,  75, 

118 
Hearth  and  Home,  116,  136 
Heath,  Richard,  15 
Heir  of  Gaymount,  The,  119,  121- 

128,  136,  148,  152 
Henry,  Patrick,  46,  59 
Henry  St.  John,  45,  48,  57-60,  69, 

71,  72,  95,  134,  161 
Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  121,  130, 

131,  141,  153 
Hilt  to  Hilt,  48,  103-105,  149,  162 
Home  Journal   (Baltimore),  103 
Home    Journal     (St.    Louis),    65, 

128,  129,  132,  133 
Ho  wells,  William  Dean,  161 
Hubbell,  Jay  B.,  153 
Hugo,  Victor,   106 

Invalidity  of  Presbyterian  Ordina- 
tion, The,  4 

"Irving,"  66 

Irving,  Washington,  19,  34,  65,  68, 
160 

James,  G.  P.  R.,  63 

Jefferson,  Joseph,  46 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  48,  49,  59,  66 

Johnston,  Mary,   161 

Jones,  Joseph,  110 

Justin  Harley,  132,  133,  134-136 


"Kane,"  67 

Kennedy,  John  Pendleton,  5 
Kennedy,  "Puss,"  11 
Kercheval,  Samuel,  32,  37 
Kingdom  Mortgaged,  A,  25,  26 
Knickerbocker  Magazine,  7 
Knight  of  Espalion,  The,  24-26,  53 

Lanier,  Sidney,  118 

Last  of  the  Foresters,  The,  13,  30, 

50-53,  55,  135 
Leather  Stocking  and  Silk,  13,  21, 

22,  33-37,  40,  51,  71,  135 
Lee,  Fitzhugh,  87 
Lee,  Robert  Edward,  74,  79,  82,  107 
Lee,  Susan  Pendleton,  160 
Leigh,  Benjamin  Watkins,  Jr.,  14, 

15,  16,  20,  21,  34 
Life  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  80,  87- 

90 
Life  of  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  87, 

107-108,   131 
Literary  World,  The,  33 
Lyons,  "Buck,"  35,  48 

McClellan,  G.  B.,  101 

McClellan,  W.  J.,  103 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington,  150 

Madison,  James,  65 

Man  Hunter,  The,  128 

Mann,  Lucy,  113 

Marshall,  John,  65 

Mason,  J.  M.,  89 

Matthews,  Brander,  34 

Maurice  Mystery,  The,  154 

Meade,  G.  G.,  101 

Meade,  William,   108,   145 

"Minuet  and  Polka,"  33 

Mohun,   21,   48,   87,    101,    105-107, 

112,  135,  161,  162,  163 
Monksden,   103 


172 


INDEX 


Monroe,  James,  65 

Morgan,  Daniel,  147 

Morris,  A.,  53,  56 

"Motley  Ware,  Esq.,"  pseudonymn 

of  John  Esten  Cooke,  33 
Mr.   Grantley's  Idea,   144-146,  148 
Munford,  T.  T.,  16,  81 
"My  Acre,"  124 

My  Lady  Pokahontas,  153-154,  162 
Myers,  John,  35 

Native  Virginian  ( Orange ) ,  111 

Nelson,  William,  142 

New  American  Cyclopedia,  64,  65, 

68 
New  Eclectic   (Baltimore),  136 
New  York  Day-book,  126,  127 
New  York  Times,  32,  34,  150 

Old  Guard,  The,  100,  126 
Out  of  the  Foam,  128,  129-130,  134 
"Outlines  from  the  Outpost,"  80 
"Owlet,"  156 

Page,  John,  142 

Page,  John  Evelyn,  142 

Page,    Mary    Francis,    See    Cooke, 

Mrs.  John  Esten 
Page,  Powel,  91,  140 
Page,  Robert,  110 
Page,  Thomas  Nelson,  160 
Pattee,  F.  L.,  162 
Paul,  the  Hunter,  65,  133 
"Pen   Ingleton,   Esq.,"   pseudonym 

of  John  Esten  Cooke,  33 
Pendleton,  Edmund,  5,  35 
Pendleton,  Maria,  5,  6,  21,  48,  63 
"Peony,"  29,  53,  58 
Pickett,  Geo.  E.,  101 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  20,  29,  158 
Pollard,  E.  A.,  96 


Pontmartin,  A.  de,  121,  154 
Pope,  John,  88,  89,  101 
"Porte  Crayon,"  See  Strother, 

David 
Preston,  Margaret  Junkin,  148 
Pretty  Mrs.  Gaston,  121,  133-134 
Pride  of  Falling   Water,  The,  64, 

133 
Princeton,  2,  7 
Professor  Pressensee,  142-144 
Putnam's,  32,  33,  57,  103 

Randolph,  John,  58 
Reade,  Charles,  134 
Reed,  Walter,  148 
Richter,  Jean  Paul,  35 
Ripley,  George,  65,  66 
Rollin,  Charles,  11 
Russell's  Magazine,  64 

Sartain,  John,  29 

Saturday     Night     (Philadelphia), 

103 
Sawney,  10,  120 
Scenes     and    Adventures     in     the 

Army,  4 
Scott,  Walter,  161 
Shadow  on  the  Wall,  The,  64,  132 
Shakespeare,  William,   153 
Sheridan,  P.  H.,  191 
Short,  Charles  W.,  3 
Sigel,  Franz,  89 
"Sigh  for  England,  A,"  155 
Simms,  William  Gilmore,  52,  118, 

160,  161 
Smith,  John,  21 
Southern  Illustrated  News,  80 
Southern    Literary    Messenger,    8, 

14,  22,  23,  25,  28,  30,  32,  33,  37, 

49,  57,  64,  80,  158 
Southern  Magazine,  136 


INDEX 


173 


Southern  Society,  103 
Southern  World,  155 
Southey,  Robert,  20 
Spofforth,  Nathaniel,  2 
Stedman,  E.  C,  68,  150 
Stegers,  the,  32 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  162 
Stonewall  Jackson,  88-91,  94,  98, 

107,  152 
Stories  of  the  Old  Dominion,  58, 

147-148,  149,  160,  162 
Strother,  David,  5,  30,  56 
Stuart,  J.  E.  B.,  75,  76,  77,  79,  81, 

97,  98,  99,  141 
Stuart,  Mrs.  J.  E.  B.,  75 
Sun,  The  (N.  Y.),  150 
"Sunset  on  the  Chesapeake,"  32 
Surry  of  Eagle's-Nest,  21,  48,  87, 

91-95,    99,    101,    103,    104,    105, 

106,  128,  135,  138,  142,  151,  153, 

161,  162,  163 

Tayleure,  C.  W.,  46 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  19,  20,  67 
Thackeray,  W.  M.,  131,  136,  137 
"Thomas  Carlyle,"  23 
Thompson,  John  R.,  28,  30,  38,  46, 

63,  66 
Timrod,  Henry,  118 
To-day   (Philadelphia),  135 
"To  Kossuth,"  24 
"Tragedy  of  Hairston,"  103 
Transylvania  Journal  of  Medicine, 

4 
Trent,  W.  P.,  74 

"Tristan  Joyeuse,  Gent.,"  pseudo- 
nym of  John  Esten  Cooke,  84 


Underwood,  Oscar  W.,  17 

Van  Evrie,  J.  K.,  127 
Venable,  C.  S.,  81 
Virginia,  149-151,  160,  162 
Virginia  Bohemians,  The,   148-149 
Virginia  Comedians,   The,   37,  40- 
48,  55,  58,  59,  60,   61,  71,   132, 
136,  138,  148,  151,  153,  163 
"Virginia  in  the  Revolution,"  146 
"Virginia,  Past  and  Present,"  33 
Virginia,  University  of,  14,  17,  66 

Washington,  George,  32,  37,  59 
Wearing  of  the  Gray,  96-100,  124 
"Wedding  at  Duluth,  The,"  134 
"Well  of  St.  Kean,  The,"  19 
Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  66 
William  and  Mary,  College  of,  14, 

46,  48 
Williams,  John  Sharp,  17 
Willis,  Nathaniel  Parker,  68 
Wilson,  Mrs.   Augusta  Evans,   95, 

148 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  17 
Wirt,  William,  21 
Wise,  Annie   (Mrs.  Hobson),  74 
Wise,  Henry  A.,  74 
World,  The    (N.  Y.),   87,  90,  91, 

136 
"Writer  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, The,"  156 

Young,  P.  M.  B.,  118 
Youth  of  Jefferson,  The,  48-50,  58, 
156 


VITA 

John  Owen  Beaty  was  born  on  December  22,  1890,  son  of 
James  Robert  and  Eula  Simms  Beaty,  both  Virginians. 
Received  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia,  1913,  and  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts 
(Romanic  Languages)  the  same  year.  Graduate  student  in 
English  (Professors  Kent  and  Smith),  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, 1913-1914.  Holder  of  Bennett  Wood  Green  Travel- 
ing Scholarship  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  1914-1917. 
Student,  Department  of  English  and  Comparative  Litera- 
ture (Professors  Ayres,  Erskine,  Krapp,  Lawrence,  Mat- 
thews, Thorndike,  Trent,  Van  Doren),  Columbia  University, 
1914-1917.  Served  in  U.  S.  Army,  August  27,  1917,  to 
August  27,  1919.  Student  of  Literature  (Professors  Del- 
court,  Grammont,  Vianey),  University  of  Montpellier 
(France),  spring  semester,  1919.  Married  Miss  Josephine 
Mason  Powell,  of  New  York,  September  25,  1920.  Repre- 
sentative of  Southern  Methodist  University  at  the  Cen- 
tennial of  the  University  of  Virginia  and  at  the  inaugura- 
tion of  President  Angell  of  Yale,  1921.  Member  of  Phi 
Beta  Kappa.  First  Lieutenant,  0.  R.  C.  Joint  author  with 
Jay  B.  Hubbell  of  An  Introduction  to  Poetry  (Macmillan, 
1922).  Assistant  Professor  of  English,  Southern  Metho- 
dist University,  1919 ;  Associate  Professor,  1920 ;  Professor, 
1922. 


175 


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